April 2009 archive
Bryan's first day of commuting
Every time Bryan goes “out of town”, someone gets sick. Today it was Isaac. He threw up at breakfast. Today was the first day that Bryan went to work in Bingen, WA and he only drives an hour to get there. Does this mean we HAVE to move to Bingen immediately so we won’t have sick people in our house every day?
On a random note, this weekend I had a dream… you know one of those non-premonitory dreams that really bug you but have no meaning… Well I dreamed that Bryan got an email this weekend that told him that Insitu didn’t really have a job for him and that he didn’t need to bother to go into work on Monday. Dreams like this freak me out. But then I say to myself that I am not clairvoyant and it isn’t true. Then I calm down. Then life is hunky dory. Until Bryan comes home at 10:30 in the morning after having just left at 7 am to go in to his new job. And he is smiling?@#$@@^@! What is up with that?!
It turns out that the company policy is that on the first day or work you have to bring in two valid forms of identification from this approved list: Driver’s license, social security (SS) card, valid passport, or notarized birth certificate. But they changed their policy recently without telling Bryan that either a birth certificate or a valid Passport are required as one of those forms of ID. He only had his license and his SS card. He could have driven home to get those and then driven back, but the guys at the new job said “Whoops, we know this is our fault, let’s just send you home. We’ll try it again tomorrow… Seeing you back here in two hours (round trip to Vancouver and back) isn’t worth it. See ya tomorrow.”
So now Bryan is home with us on a GLORIOUS SUNNY DAY and we have all the kids home even. But we can’t just play hookie because Isaac threw up earlier in the day. So what do we do? We see if Isaac can hold food down in his stomach and once we determine he is fine, which amazingly he is, we head out for a hike. What says sick day more than going on a hike?
Today we visited the Audobon society in Portland. It was great. The sun was delicious. Glad we could go. No one else threw up. Bliss. Enough said.
This reminds me of the time we tried to go to my friend Jandy’s wedding in Boise when Isaac started throwing up in the car halfway there (just at the top of Cabbage Hill in case you are curious). We stopped at a hotel overnight in Pendleton to see if he would get over the stomach bug and we could proceed to the wedding when Micah started spewing in the hotel. At this point, we have lots of yucky laundry and a van full of puke and we are only 30 minutes from Bryan’s parents house so we just go over there to clean out the van before we give up and drive home (it smelled too yucky to just drive home without some serious cleaning). Once we get to the Murdocks’ house and the van is clean, everyone is fine and we go out and have a wonderful weekend with Grandma and Grandpa. We even hiked and played at a park. It was a glorious weekend that started out horribly.
And today was just like that weekend of Jandy’s wedding. Started with puke, yet ended beautifully. We still don’t know why Isaac got sick today, but he got to be home to enjoy the sun instead. Let’s hope Bryan’s commute does not induce sickness tomorrow too!
***FYI: That second little story (and a few others too really) is why we paid extra $$$ to get the cloth upholstery pulled out of our new van and leather put in. I would seriously love vinyl flooring instead of carpeting too just because it would be so much easier to clean vomit up during experiences like that. Let me tell you, I love how wipe-able leather is.
Posted by Ily on April 20, 2009 | Filed under: Family News | 2 comments
Son of the Power Wagon
Well, I bought a car. I researched, I gathered data, I drove cars. I searched craigslist, scoured kbb, and coaxed all the information I could out of edmunds. I analyzed all the options to the point of analysis paralysis. And then I just bought another Corolla. Between my parents and siblings we have now purchased 5 Corollas. My new one is a 2006 that only had 31,000 miles on it. And yes, it came with those hip-hop rims you’ll see in the pictures. I didn’t add those myself. I tried to break tradition and find something different, but the research bore out the decision to get another Corolla. That and how familiar it felt when I drove one.
Those of you that knew me in high school undoubtedly remember the first Corolla my family owned. It was a 1981, the fourth generation, or E70, if you are keeping track. I’m not that old though. No, that car was 12 years old when I started driving it, and it had seen better days. It ran fine, but there were issues, like the radio didn’t work and it didn’t have air conditioning. It was slow to accelerate. It shook if you drove too fast. It was orange. It was probably the perfect car to give a 16-year old.
My friend, Nolan, also drove an old car in high school. I thought it was a 1974, but Wikipedia says that the last year they were made was 1968. The year doesn’t really matter though. What’s pertinent, is that it was a seasoned and still mighty, Dodge Power Wagon.
One Wednesday evening in Kennewick, while Nolan, I, and the others who play into this tale, resided safe inside the brick walls of the “Union Building”:http://maps.lds.org/?t=1&m=google&mt=3&mlat=46.2020226322999&mlng=-119.18007373809814&mz=15&lat=46.19233713036446&lng=-119.18038063890269&a=S%20Union%20St&c=Kennewick&s=WA&p=99338&n=United%20States&sel=0, the Corolla and the Old Power Wagon sat inanimately in the parking lot with all the other cars. Or so we thought.
You see, while we worked on merit badges and awkwardly flirted in the hallways with the girls who were, well, doing whatever the Young Women church activities were, an event not well understood by the likes of Men took place outside.
A sudden and unusual cloud cover gathered over the parking lot. The cars became completely obscured as the clouds lowered and enshrouded the seemingly innocuous group of automobiles. A clearing emerged in the middle of the mist. It started small and pushed the haze outward until a circle of cars was visible, cars that had once been parked in (relatively) neat and orderly rows. In the middle of the circle the two oldest and most wizened vehicles sat facing each other. The larger and older of the two, the truck, the Old Power Wagon, appeared to gaze down appraisingly on the smaller, slightly younger, orange sedan. Engines revved all around them, and horns bleated. A haunting rhythm emerged from the car noises as the Corolla seemed to stare back, deferential but confident. All perceived the Old Power Wagon weighing and assessing. Suspense built as the rhythmic revving and bleating raised to a crescendo. The mist began to swirl counter clockwise around the circle of cars. The noise inside became deafening. Finally, the Corolla added the piercing growl of its own 1.8 liter engine to the symphony, as if making a bold assertion to the Old Power Wagon. The old Dodge seemed to scowl and then revved its engine furiously, belching exhaust. The thundering roar rose above the sound of the chanting circle of cars and shook the earth. The Corolla did not back down. Both held their throttles open for an uncomfortable amount of time when finally the Dodge engine eased a bit and made a gravelly sputtering sound. It could have been an approving chuckle, but before one could be sure there was a brilliant and protracted flash of lightening. By the time the blinding light was gone all was silent and the mist had completely closed in around all the cars.
Outside the fog all anyone perceived was the descending of the cloud, a period of time where the mist silently swirled and then a flash of lightening and one crash of thunder. As the echoes of the thunder, echoes which may have sounded curiously like car engines, died away, the mist dispersed and the cars were there where their owners had left them, as if nothing at all had happened. Almost nothing.
As we mingled in the parking lot after the activities were over, Greg and Nolan walked over to Arthur and I, Greg holding a rectangular piece of metal. As they got closer I could see that it was silver lettering from the side of Nolan’s truck, reading “POWER WAGON,” in all caps. It seems it had fallen off of Nolan’s truck somehow while we were inside. Not knowing why, Nolan and Greg felt compelled to show it to me. As it was placed in my hand the four of us examined each others faces. Somehow we all thought the same thing. The next day in solemnity, Arthur and I took my dad’s drill to the hood of my corolla. It stood proudly in my driveway as we drilled two mounting holes, and then two more holes in the two letter O’s in POWER WAGON. Nobody could explain why, but we just knew that bolting the new moniker to the front of that old corolla was the right thing to do. From then on it was no longer a simple Toyota Corolla. It was, The Power Wagon.
I drove the Power Wagon all over the Tri-Cities during my high school years. When I left for college it was passed on to Melinda and then somewhere further down the line it’s useful service to our family was lived out and it was sold. I retained the Moniker though. The silver letters have been hanging on the wall in my cubicle at work, inspiring me in memoriam of its proud former bearers.
I cannot say how the story of the parking lot ceremony was made known to me, but I pass it on to you now, so that you might have some understanding of the significance of the photos of my new car below. Behold:
Posted by Bryan on April 18, 2009 | Filed under: Family News | 4 comments
Spring break '09
We had a busy spring break this last week. Though it rained most of the time, we still managed to have fun.
Saturday: Built robots out of Lego mindstorms. Bryan taught the older boys to play Risk… Micah won which really irked Isaac and he wants a rematch. Went to the church to let the boys run out some energy in the gym.
Sunday: Tried to be reverent.
Monday: Mustache Monday. They all wanted mustaches drawn on their faces out of my eyeliner. Reece is beginning to learn that dressing up like a cowboy is essential to boyhood. Today we focused on the handle bar mustache.
Tuesday: Jungle Playland- like an indoor McDonald’s playland only at least 10 times bigger. Lunch after at Boppin’ Bo’s, a restaurant that Isaac’s Primary teacher owns.
Wednesday: Visit the $3 movie theater to watch Bedtime Stories. Reece was totally bored and wandered the isles, Isaac thought it was the best movie ever. I just thought it was ok.
Thursday: Visited the Historic Fort of Vancouver here in Vancouver to check off some cub scout stuff. It was fun, they had cannons, they had a jail and a tower with more cannons. This was like manna to a young boys’ soul.
Friday: Another mustache day- up today is the Chick Hicks mustache (you know- that green car from Cars the movie who eventually wins the Piston Cup after he cheats). Micah decides to wear all white so he can be camouflaged in milk. Also up is open gym at the local gymnastics facility. We met Oliver’s family and Melinda and Jason there for some bouncin’ and jumping and climbing. Crazy busy place that day. There were tons of kids of all ages and I am surprised no one got hurt. I would have left if Bryan hadn’t taken the car and left us there. We lost Reece in the crowd several times. That kid has no fear and he is quick on the run! After the open gym play, we sent the boys home with Melinda while Bryan and I went to test drive cars for Bryan’s new commute to work. We almost bought this awesome 2004 BMW 325I that we test drove but we are glad we didn’t. It was just above our price range and we would have regretted it later. But oh man, it would have been fun to drive! In all, Bryan drove 6 cars that day. So on the No Go list are the Nissan Versa, the Subaru Impreza, the BMW (sigh). On the Maybe List are the Subaru Outback and Legacy, and maybe a Scion.
Saturday: Conference, car research, visit the park to run and picnic in between sessions, conference session #2, more car research, more park play because the weather was GLORIOUS, Bryan test drives my friend Maria’s 2007 corolla and decides he must research that car now too, he goes off to more conference while Maria and I do a hot cardio mix latin workout video in my living room… and then more car research until we fall into bed just about fully cooked for the day.
Sunday: The last 2 sessions of conference. I can’t believe how well our boys did this time around. To keep them quiet and busy we let them do puzzles, build robots out of mindstorms, knit (Isaac alone finished 3 hats this weekend), and eat biscotti. I was able to listen, they were able to listen and we hardly fell asleep. I love watching conference at home. After conference we went to meet some Estonians who get together for an Estonian choir and an instrumental group and a folk dance group. They meet most Sundays. For those of you who don’t know, my mother’s side is Estonian and so my name, which does not actually have an Estonian spelling does happen to be an Estonian. It was fun and I had so much fun dancing with everyone. These dancers are going to Estonia this summer for a big dance festival there and I wish I could join them! It would be so fun!
So here I am at the end of spring break, happy to send Isaac off to school again but happy we had a nice break. The boys played outside, rain or shine, in between all of our other activities. It ended up being quite pleasant. Vacationing at home can be fun too.
Notice the child all in white. He is dressed to be camouflaged in milk. ... See my Tabblo>
Posted by Ily on April 5, 2009 | Filed under: Family News | 3 comments
Changing Jobs
You may recall back in January that my project at work was cancelled. About a month later I was offered a position with HP, but as you can imagine, in that month’s time I hadn’t been sitting around waiting for HP. One of the companies that I started talking to during that time recently made me a job offer. I had a difficult choice to make, but a very good kind of difficult. I like to have options. There were some important considerations that went into the decision, and I won’t go into all the detailed pros and cons that we weighed here, but after some serious deliberations and prayer, Ily and I decided to have me accept the job offer.
I will be working for Insitu Inc. writing software to make Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) fly. In talking with the people there it sounds like I’ll have a chance to do some hardware design as well (FPGAs, if you really want to know). I’ve wanted to stay in the realm of electro-mechanical systems (what I like to call, robots), and this job looks like it will be right in there. The company is doing well (they are hiring!) and the UAV market is growing. The one downside is they are located about an hour from our house. We don’t plan to move right away, but it is going to be a little too far for me to ride my bike.
My start date at Insitu is April 20th. Until then I’ll be helping HP out with some crunch-time work and shopping for a car.
Posted by Bryan on April 2, 2009 | Filed under: Family News | 6 comments
