At 43 years old, the question of who I am is complex. Mostly I’m a father then a husband and then a software engineer. Probably because of my small town roots, I maintain a relatively small circle of friends in the physical world. In the last few years that circle has expanded to many friends I’ve met on the internet and people with whom I have reconnected on Facebook.

My mind still tends to be ruled by logic although I think I’ve grown more empathetic/sympathetic to those ruled by emotion. I like to think that I understand the world a little better than when we were young together, but that may well be an illusion. I’m also much better at handling the hurdles and setbacks that life gives me occasionally.

The smartest (and luckiest) thing I’ve ever done is marry my wife, Tina. She provides me such a great alternate view on reality! We are dissimilar in many ways but alike in our resolve to live a good life together and raise our boys to be great young men. She’s an artist with great talent that she has applied to painting, scrapbooking, movie-making and number of other endeavors. I am jealous of her ability and don’t tell her that often enough. If you remember what an ass I could be at 16-18, you’ll not be surprised that I was not much better when I met her at 25. That she stuck with me through that time is a testament both to her loyalty and her ability to see the potential I had. We’re happier and more content with each other now than we ever have been.

Thomas really likes to play songs from American Idiot.

My mother, who was sitting beside me, told me Graham had stepped backwards off of the stage, which is three to four feet high. Later, Graham would tell us that his foot had been caught in the four inch gap between the stage proper and the curtain rod that extends all around the stage. After watching a few people walk down to the scene with medically-trained purpose, I decided I better investigate myself. Graham was still laying on his back, holding his head and crying a little. Someone was checking his eyes for dilation and asking him questions related to head concussions. He was sweating but it was sort of humid in the auditorium. I suggested to him that we go sit outside and get some fresh air. After a bit, he agreed and Tina took him outside while one of the medical people took me aside and told me about concussion symptoms we should watch for during the next 24 hours.

I returned to my seat next to my mom and watched Thomas play with the fifth grade orchestra (to help them keep the beat). Tina and Graham came back in after awhile and Graham reported that his side hurt. After some discussion, we decided that Tina would take Graham to the doctor or the emergency room after consulting with his doctor. The doctor recommended that she take him to the Emanuel ER because they have a pediatric ward. Four hours later the ER doctor told them that he had bruised ribs, some soft tissue damage to his ankle and a slight concussion. Graham is staying home for a couple of days and has a vicodin(!!) prescription for the pain. He still has a headache today and his ribs are sore. Also, he tells me he is bored.

Thomas’ portions of the concert went off much better and nobody was injured. Grandma Ring especially enjoyed Serenade for Strings by Mozart while I really liked hearing the Halo theme again. They finished with “Shrek’s Nightmare” which was really fun and involved screaming. Thomas played in both the Advanced 7th & 8th Grade Orchestra and in the prestigious Chamber Orchestra, for which he arrives an hour early to school every day.

Thomas has also been playing music at home quite a bit recently since we helped him buy an electric bass and amplifier. He picked the Epiphone Thunderbird and we got a 10 watt Acoustic amplifier. We should have waited until school was out because he’s been spending almost every waking moment downloading tablature from the internet and playing it on his bass. He’s helping to pay for the bass by mowing our lawn this summer, a task I’m very glad to delegate to him. Thomas continues to be active with Boy Scout Troop 820. For the second year in a row his troop captured the Top Troop award at the annual Camporee competition. We’re very glad for his participation and the great influence that the older boys have on him and his friends.

As I mentioned earlier, I invited my mother to visit so that she could see the boys play and the timing was also right for her to be here for Graham’s 10th birthday. After mulling his options, he chose to get a new bed for his birthday. He also shocked his Grandma by insisting that we eat at Sushiville for his birthday lunch. Grandma is not very fond of sushi but she was a good sport and even took us all (including Uncle Buddy) to see Up, the latest Pixar film, at Cinetopia. It was tremendous and one of the best stories I have ever seen with no dialog or narration for the first part of the movie. We’ve also been to see Terminator: Salvation and the new Star Trek movie in recent weeks. We don’t go to the movies very often so this will likely signal an upcoming drought of movies in the very near future.

At the start of April, my employer decided that they would finally close the Vancouver office at the end of the month. If you recall, they laid nearly everyone in the office last August but held on to a couple of engineers to work from home. I was lucky enough to be one of those engineers. After the layoffs were finished, they kept my old boss on to work on a “short project” and continue providing support for our previously released products. Well, the short project went on for several months longer than projected and my boss continued working by himself in the Vancouver office. Once the project was finished and they decided to finally close the office, my VP called to tell me that I would be working in Vancouver until the office was closed. You see, part of my job description includes supporting our previously released products much like my old boss had been doing. During the month of April, he and I worked on current issues and he performed what is often described in the software business as a “knowledge dump” to me. I took pages and pages of notes and eventually transferred them to an internal wiki (I love wikis!).

Although I didn’t necessarily enjoy commuting to Vancouver every day again, the extended training session signaled that my employer is committed to my continued employment far into the future. I am now the only person in the company with the knowledge to support these older products and that is very reassuring to me, especially in the face of recent cost cutting measures that have been undertaken at the company. In addition, I’m also enjoying working as a Mac programmer again after having been away from “real” Mac programming since last fall. Management would like if I were able to spend a small portion of my time with these support issues but I don’t see that happening in the very near future.

I picked up Halo 2 from Half.com for $10 a couple of weeks ago. Since then the boys and I have been enjoying it tremendously. After Graham finished it, he asked me for my Halo 1 disc for Mac which he finished a few days later. Nothing brings a family together quite like killing aliens.

As a reward for finishing all his homework, we took Thomas to Best Buy last night and bought Halo 3 for him. Tonight he’s celebrating with his friends Ziad and Gabe by playing Rock Band and Halo 3 on our Xbox. They are quite raucous but they will hopefully quiet down as the night progresses.

This image speaks volumes about Thomas. He made it using Disk Inventory and marked it up with Skitch. Code Monkeys, How I Met Your Mother and Doogie Howser are all television series. Click the image to see it full size.

At first I had some difficulty adjusting my schedule – i.e. getting up at 6:00 am to get the boys to school – but I’ve grown pretty used to it in the last couple of weeks. Discovering the coffee shop by Thomas’ school was also helpful in that area. Being able to work from home has certainly made this situation much easier for me, and my boss has been very understanding about taking time away from work when needed. Like most companies right now, EFI is under tremendous financial pressure and has seen a slowdown in sales in the last year. There have been layoffs because of that, but I have been lucky enough to avoid those so far.

Thomas turned 13 at the end of January and we had a low-key celebration for him. As usual he raked in a chunk of money and spent a couple of weeks planning how to spend it. He has been wanting a high quality set of headphones since before Christmas so I helped him pick out a pair by Audio-Technica which arrived in the mail today. He let us all try them out (or he showed them off) and they are very impressive. Much better than any headphones I have ever owned.

When I has a teenager, I felt lucky when my brother, Mark, loaned/gave me his Koss headphones which were very high quality at the time. They weighed about four pounds and all of the foam in the ear cups had mostly disintegrated. If I wore them for more than 15 minutes, they made my ears hurt but I still wore them for hours, probably much to my sister, Maridee’s, relief. Eventually, my brother, Kim, and I replaced the foam and rewired them. At some point, perhaps when I left for college, I decided that I didn’t need those headphones anymore and left them with Kim. I’m not sure if Mark ever got them back.

Graham had his Pinewood Derby last week but couldn’t go because he was sick. Thomas and I went in his stead and are hoping for the best when the results are made available during the Blue and Gold banquet this month. Once again we put off crafting it until a few weeks before weigh-in. Thomas and I were gluing his and Graham’s car just minutes before taking them to the weigh-in. Next year will be Graham’s last Pinewood Derby and we are determined to win it all then.

Graham has also become dissatisfied with his school. In previous years, he’s been able to attend advanced classes but our school district has had to cut their budget significantly this year and that option isn’t available now. He goes to a different school for their TAG (talented and gifted) program, but that’s only a couple of afternoons each week. He complains that he doesn’t feel challenged and is not learning anything because they are reviewing what he learned last year. I feel for him because I felt like that many times when I was in school. Still, it’s hard to convey to him how to be patient and just get through these things.

Thanks to all of you have kept us in your thoughts and prayers; sent gifts, flower and cards; or otherwise helped us out in our time of need. If nothing else, we’ve learned just how lucky we are.

0600:

iPhone alarm wakes me with “Sonar”. I get out of bed, put on yesterday’s clothes and check Thomas’ room. His alarm clock is rumbling but he is not in his room. I wander around the house looking for him until I find him in bed with his Grandma. I wake him. I take my iPhone into the Big TV Room where I check mail, Twitter and Facebook.

0615:

I confirm that Thomas is showering and then check Graham’s car to see if the glue has completely dried overnight. It has, so I sit down and apply a layer of wood putty to cover the shot pellets that will provide most of the car’s weight.

0650:

Thomas has eaten breakfast and has his lunch ready. I wake Graham and ask him if he needs a shower today. He replies that he doesn’t. Thomas and I depart for HB Lee middle school and I drop him off as his orchestra teacher arrives. On my way home I stop in for a large mocha but opt for only 3 shots instead of 4. Extra shots make me shaky.

0710:

I check on Graham when I get home and discover that he is still sleeping. When I wake him he is alarmed and says that he thought he could go back to sleep when I asked if he needed to shower. He gets up and has breakfast.

0725:

Graham and I drive to Margaret Scott Elementary. We beat the rush of dropoffs and I’m out of there in less than five minutes.

0730:

Shower, brush teeth and get dressed. Review daily to-do list, calendar, email and Tivo schedule.

0800:

Cued up a few episodes of Coverville and Drugmusic in iTunes. Started work.

1000:

Make breakfast: toast with sugar free jelly and a small glass of milk. Installed new stick of butter in butter dish from freezer for use tomorrow.

1100:

Sanded now-dry wood putty on Graham’s car.

1230:

Had Tina mask off the “neck” of Graham’s car and applied first coat of black paint to the top of the “body.”

1300:

Lunch. Leftover Papa Murphy’s from last night. Decided to eat it cold. Reddit and Digg reading while I ate.

1330:

Back to work.

1430:

Normally I would pick up Graham from the bus stop, but Tina decided that she wanted to walk there. It is several blocks away but she assures me she will be fine.

1500:

After a brief search for pinewood derby car painting rack, I made a new one (board, nail and hole in the back of the car). Applied second coat on top and first coat on the bottom. Set Graham to polishing axels and deburring the wheels.

1600:

Graham fell asleep in his bed. I peel the masking tape off the car and spray a coat of clear gloss finish. Thomas works on his axels and wheels before also falling asleep.

1700:

I finish Graham’s wheels and look for the graphite. Not finding it after a frenzied search, I start off for the hardware store to buy a new tube. Several blocks away I realize that I don’t have my wallet, although I swear I had it in my sweatshirt pocket. I return home and fail to find it in another frenzied search. I borrow $20 from Tina and head off to the hardware store again. Upon arriving at said store, I check on the floor of the back seat behind me and find wallet.

1800:

I painstakingly glue together the “pencil lead” weight that I bought at Joe’s the other day. These ideas always seem so much better before they are actually implemented. Graham is awake but feeling lousy. He won’t be attending weigh-in or school tomorrow.

1830:

Graham’s car could use another coat of glossy but there is no time: Weigh-in is from 1830 to 1930. Thomas and I glue on the axels and double-check weight. Graham’s car is over slightly so I clip off some of his “string” weight.

1900:

Thomas and I depart. I drop him off at his Boy Scout meeting and take both cars to the weigh-in. Thomas’ weighs in at 4.9 ounces (had been 4.95 on our scale) and Graham’s is a perfect 5.0. The glue is still wet but had dried enough so that the “strings” did not fall off when the scale guy flipped it upside down for the weighing.

1915:

I text Tina “I’m done” and head back to the Scout meeting. She calls and asks if I can pick up a thermometer. I drive to Walgreen’s and buy same before dropping back in on the Scouts.

2030:

Thomas and I return home from Scout meeting. I scrounge up dinner (I had missed spaghetti earlier while working on the car) and settle in for an hour of Rachel Maddow.

2200:

Bedtime

We were relieved and very glad after Thomas’ first quarter of school to find that he was getting A’s in all his classes. His attitude about homework has improved tremendously and he’s really starting to learn about personal responsibility for things. He and Tina are helping raise money for his orchestra by participating in a fundraising auction on Tuesday. This article in the Gresham Outlook tells all about it and has a few quotes from Thomas in the last few paragraphs. Although it sounds like Thomas is a big fan of classical music, he’s also really into Coldplay, Slipknot and Weezer.

Graham is not as enthusiastic about orchestra yet but he really loves school, especially reading. Right now he says he’s reading four books including Call It Courage. On Tuesdays he takes a bus to another school to participate in their Talented And Gifted program. His bus stop is only a few blocks away from our house and sometimes I meet him there after school when Tina is running an errand or otherwise unavailable. Usually he just throws his backpack and cello in the car and hoofs it home with the neighborhood kids. On the days that I don’t “pick him up,” his friend (who is a girl), Jamie, calls our house several minutes before he gets home. The other day she called every three minutes for a half an hour before giving up! Graham is also really into music but, unlike Thomas, he prefers fun bands like They Might Be Giants, The Bobs and especially Weird Al.

In November I finished up a side consulting project and we celebrated by purchasing our second Xbox 360. Tina had bought one for me for Father’s Day from a friend, but after getting the “red ring of death” and sending it back to Microsoft several times, we gave up and returned it to our friends. So far we’ve had no technical difficulties and everyone has enjoyed having it. We’re hoping Santa brings us Rock Band 2 for Christmas so we can start our own band.

Both Graham and Thomas now have Twitter accounts, so you can follow their musings by signing up for a free account. Graham’s Twitter name is “Gentop” and Thomas’ is “Tariomaster“. As always, mine is “rynosoft” and Tina’s is “Tina117“.

I shot the video when everyone else was out of the house and then showed it to them when they got back. Thomas edited the video and added the sound effects. Note that Rory was doing this for several minutes before I grabbed the camera. Crazy kitten!

Last week I returned from a short trip to Iowa where I celebrated my birthday with my Uncle Lorell. Lorell and I have the same birthday so we probably spent every one of my birthdays together until I was a teenager. This year we enjoyed cake with many of my cousins shortly after a Friday night of Wildcat football in Riceville, IA. At some point amidst the buzz all around us, I leaned over to him and said, “I didn’t get you a card.” He replied, “That’s OK, I didn’t get you one, either.” It was a perfect moment. By all accounts his chemo-therapy is going well and he hasn’t had a great deal of discomfort or sickness yet.

Just a few days after I got home, we held our 3rd Annual 40th Birthday Party. Lots of old and new friends attended and it was a rousing success. Unlike previous years, the weather kept us indoors and we weren’t able to have a fire on the deck. Still, we enjoyed the company and conversation. We’re grateful to have so many great friends.

Thomas has good news this week: he is getting A’s in all of his classes. He’s in 7th grade this year and we have been apprehensive about his academic performance after he had lots of trouble getting homework done last year. We realize that it’s just the beginning of the year, but this is a much better start than last year.

I hurt my back while at our neighbor’s BBQ over the weekend and spend all day Sunday laying flat on my back hoping for the best. It no longer hurt to stand up on Monday morning but it still feels a little “tight” at times. I have to be careful not to strain it any further. As I’ve mentioned before I heal much more slowly since I turned forty.

After the BBQ on Saturday, we drove downtown to see the annual Sand in the City sand sculpture contest at Pioneer Courthouse Square. Last year we arrived as they were cleaning up and Graham got to drop the bucket from a large skidloader onto one of the sculptures. This year was considerably less exciting but we enjoyed walking around looking at all the sculptures. After we had seen them all, the boys wanted to try their hand at a sandbox that had been set up nearby with some simple molds and wet sand. Tina and I sat on the steps nearby, talked and enjoyed the ambiance of “Portland’s living room.” We were only there a few minutes before Tina jumped up and yelled excitedly, “Grammy!” She had spotted some friends in the crowd whom she hadn’t seen for quite some time. They came over and talked for awhile and their daughter, who is almost exactly the same age as Thomas, joined the boys in their molding endeavors. After they left a little girl came over and said “Graham?” She recognized him from school and also tried her hand with the sand for a little while.

As the sun started to set, Tina and I convinced the boys to leave by promising them a Hawaiian ice. Although the sign promised “real Hawaiian shaved ice”, the vendor could only offer finely ground ice. We ate them on the steps while we soaked in a few more minutes of quintessential Portland before departing for home. It was a good day.

Last week I started out the week by traveling to Foster City, CA, for some training at EFI headquarters. Because of the Northern California wildfires, my direct flight was cancelled and I was forced to take a flight through Seattle. By the time I arrived in Seattle, the connecting flight had been delayed and I didn’t arrive in San Francisco until 1:30. Unfortunately, my luggage (a change of clothes and my CPAP) was on another flight which did not arrive until quite later in the day. After waiting in line for at least an hour at the United luggage service counter, I left them orders to deliver the bag to my hotel after it arrived. It was eventually delivered to my hotel while I was at dinner that night.

I was glad to join my friend, Rob, for dinner both nights that I was in California. On the second night, we ate at a nice French restaurant before Rob dropped me off at SFO for my late evening flight home. There were no complications this time and the plane was only half full making it almost enjoyable.

When I got home, Thomas greeted me at the door, clearly glad to see me. Since school has been out, we’ve given him more liberty with respect to bedtime and he has fully exploited the privilege, frequently staying up past midnight. Of course, this also means that he frequently sleeps in past noon. He’s also developing a habit of sleeping on the couch. In other words, he is becoming the teenager that I was. It’s made me realize what I put my mother through back in the day.

On Wednesday night, we both went to bed around 2 am but I couldn’t get to sleep. After a half hour of unsuccessfully trying, I gave up and joined the cats on the couch for some reading. Ming was sleeping in his usual spot behind the couch and I attempted to rouse him to join me for some pets. I thought he was trying to ignore me but when he came out awhile later, it was clear that there was a different story.

He did a lot of sniffing around the room, especially near the perimeter. He moved very gingerly and deliberately but still ran into a few objects that were laying on the floor. Each time he would move to the side and try again. Suspecting that he couldn’t see, I picked him up to look at his left eye. His right eye clouded up years ago and he’s been quite deaf for a couple of years so he was startled when I touched him and a little alarmed when I picked him up but he soon realized it was me and relaxed. His left eye is indeed a little cloudy but not as much as the other eye. After observing him for the last week, I have concluded that he can still see shapes and some movement. He continues to get around on his own and is able to find water, food and the cat boxes in the garage. He even jumps up on the bed at night but he does so with claws extended so he doesn’t slip. Everything takes a lot longer for him now but he’s still functional so we can put off any hard decisions until later.

On Tuesday, we left Portland and drove up the Gorge into Washington, headed north to Spokane and then on through Coeur d’Alene. Although we weren’t able to use our new bike rack because of unexpected clearance issues with the Scion, another Scout family had plenty of room for our bikes in their gigantic flatbed trailer. We spent the first two nights at the Blue Anchor RV Park in Osburn.

On Wednesday, we took the long car journey to the head of the Route of the Hiawatha rail trail. Along the way, one of our vehicles suffered a flat tire and one of the boys found a .38 revolver on the side of the road while we waited for the tire change. Eventually we found our way to the trailhead and embarked on the most magical bike ride I’ve ever had in my life. The route is only 15 miles long and entirely downhill. We rode down at a leisurely pace and made many stops to read about the history and enjoy the spectacular views. I can’t recommend this trail enough. It takes very little effort and the payoff is unbelievable.

On Thursday we dropped off the bikers and a few of us drove all the equipment here (to the Wolf Lodge) where we settled in for the rest of the trip. The bikers (including Tina and Thomas) rode another 30 miles on another rail trail from Mullan to Cataldo. That night we celebrated one of the Scout mother’s birthday with chocolate cake, ice cream and homemade dutch oven cobblers. It was a sublime moment of comraderie and fellowship.

On our last day of biking, we drove out to Harrison for an “out and back” ride to Plummer along Lake Coeur d’Alene. Graham only wanted to go 12 miles so we turned around after 6 miles, but Tina and Thomas rode the full 32 miles, giving them a total of about 79 miles for the three days. Because of our slower pace, however, Graham and I were able to observe the local flora and fauna better than the hardcore bikers.

Today is probably the highlight for all the kids as they ride the rafts and rollercoasters. I volunteered to watch over the bicycles and the dog. I’m enjoying the solitude, though, and have been wanting to write about our trip since the second day. Tomorrow we pack it all up and drive home. We’ve been on many scouting campouts before but I think this one has been the best for getting to know the other parents. I’m very glad that we came and I’m quite certain that we’ll be back.

Route:

• I-84 bike path to NE Fairview Parkway
• Fairview Parkway to Sandy Boulevard
• Sandy to 223rd Ave
• 223rd to Blue Lake Road
• Blue Lake Road to Blue Lake Park
• Rode trails in Blue Lake Park
• Marine Drive to 158th Ave
• 158th through subdivision to Fremont
• Fremont to 156th Ave
• 156th to home via “the private drive”

Here is what he is missing:
Greek Gods Packet (in folder)
Greek Gods Note sheet (from book)
Nature Myths Note sheet (from book)
Cupid and Psyche Summary
Cupid and Psyche Analysis
Packet #1 East
Packet #2 East
WORKING ON TO TURN IN TUESDAY
Packet #3 East

To say we were surprised would be a vast understatement. We ask him nearly every day if he has homework and he never gave us the impression that he was behind. This is not the first time this has happened, though, as we have continued to struggle with him to keep up on his homework. This particular class has been the main thorn in his side so I guess it shouldn’t have been a surprise, but it was. After we got the email, we informed Thomas that he would not be able to attend a Scouting function this weekend unless he caught up on his homework. He agreed to this and worked out a plan to do enough homework each night so that he would have it all done by Friday morning.

The Scouting function this weekend is called Camporee and only happens once a year. Thomas’ troop takes it very seriously and even holds a practice camput a few weeks prior each year. Because he was elected Patrol Leader by his patrol, it was very important for him to attend. When he fell behind on homework before, we made him stay home one weekend when his troop was camping. That time he got sick, though, and apparently did not learn his lesson because he would have had to stay home anyway.

In addition to other factors, his poor sleep habits have proven to be his biggest obstacle. Like me, he is what my mother calls a “night owl.” It’s difficult enough getting him to go to sleep at night but he has been prone to falling asleep after he gets home from school or shortly after we finish dinner. If we let him sleep, he will wake up before midnight and won’t be able to get back to sleep. Waking him up, however, is incredibly hard. Either way, it screws up his sleep for that night and he is equally hard to wake the next morning. Of course, it also makes him more likely to fall asleep after school the next day. It’s a vicious circle that we have been trying very hard to break.

Despite our efforts, twice this week we were faced with this problem of him falling asleep early. After I arrived home from work one evening, I was faced with trying to wake him once again. I went to his room and told him that he had to get up and warned him that I was going to “get the water” if he didn’t wake soon. He grunted his acknowledgement but made no movement to waking. I went to the kitchen and filled a glass about half full of water and returned to his room. I gave him two more warnings to no avail and then delivered on my threat by throwing the half full glass (less than a cup I would estimate) across his chest and face. He immediately reacted hysterically and continued to be hysterical for at least the next 30 minutes. Once the deed was done, I nearly immediately regretted it. Although it did wake him, he was so upset that he was mostly useless for at least an hour after.

The other problem, as I have mentioned before, is getting him to stay focused on the task at hand. He rewards himself with breaks that sometimes stretch past an hour long despite our nagging that he really should be getting back to his homework. In the past we’ve micro-managed his time to some degree by nagging him every few minutes until he starts on his homework again. Clearly, that’s not working very well so we have lately tried hard to let him learn how to manage his time on his own. We continued that this week only telling him occasionally that he would miss out on Camporee. Each night, though, he would tell us that he was on track to have it all done and we reluctantly went along.

Sure enough, when Thursday night arrived, Thomas was hardly within striking distance of finishing. I went to bed at midnight and he was blearily continuing to believe that he would finish. Neither Tina or I believed him, so before I went to bed I advised him that if he couldn’t do a good job, he should just go to bed because his teacher wouldn’t accept it if it was poorly done. Evidently he continued to work well into the night, reading over 80 pages and doing the related work.

Surprisingly, after some last minute drama that I won’t go into here, he did finally catch up literally minutes before his Scout troop departed for Camporee. I would be willing to bet that he fell asleep during the 45 minute drive there and also fell asleep early Friday night. His troop finished in first place among all the troops that were there this weekend and he contributed quite positively to several of the competitions. Nevertheless, the Scoutmaster made sure to take him aside and tell him that if he was going to miss Scouting events because of school, he would no longer be in the troop. I hope he takes it seriously.

I’ll be glad when this school year is done.

After the three of us finished breakfast, we retired to the living room to watch Saturday Night Live on the Tivo from the night before. Tina and I became drowsy and drifted off to slumber. Thomas was still sleeping so Graham was the only one in the house awake for awhile. A couple of hours later we woke to find Graham watching Mary Poppins as it was recording on the Tivo. We watched about half of the movie before deciding that we should rouse Thomas and get ready for lunch at one of the three restaurants with which I had made reservations the night before. As we waited for everyone to finish showering and dressing, Graham retrieved our Mother’s Day gift from my office and presented it to Tina. She has long wanted a GPS and I found a great deal on a TomTom a few weeks ago. She was very surprised and delighted.

After reviewing the basics of GPS navigation, we set course for a 1:00 reservation at Newport Bay which has a delicious Sunday brunch buffet. Although it was very busy and the service was a bit slow, we were not disappointed. After we ate more than our fill, we visited our nearby Bike Gallery location to shop for a new bike for Tina. Since Tina broke her tailbone a couple of years ago, she has not been able to ride her mountain bike comfortably. When Thomas outgrew the bike we bought him a couple of years ago, he was glad to get Tina’s old bike. Graham inherited Thomas’ bike but Tina was left bikeless.

We had already looked at several bikes in the cruiser style, but we were both pretty partial to the Trek 7000 series for women. Simon, our helpful Bike Gallery salesman, put the 2007 model of the 7300 up on a trainer and fitted it for her. She really likes the upright position which doesn’t force her to stretch out her painful tailbone injury. After a little deliberation, we decided to buy the 2008 model since it has RapidFire shifters (instead of the grip-twist shifters). They didn’t have the 2008 7300 in the size and color (light blue) we needed but the Bike Gallery in Hollywood (another area in Portland not too far from our house) had it.

We stopped briefly at home to switch vehicles and then The Doctor (Tina’s name for her TomTom) plotted our course to the Hollywood Bike Gallery. After a quick checkup by the service staff and a minor seat adjustment, we rolled it out of the store and loaded it into the van. We were all amazed at how light it was as we lifted it into the van. It’s also much shorter than my bike so it fit quite easily into the back of the van.

Anxious to try out her new bike, we all mounted up our bikes when we got home and went for a short ride on the bike trail that parallels Interstate 84 near our home. Graham was cranky and refused to go faster than 7 mph because he was afraid of wiping out like he did a few weeks ago. He also said he was uncomfortable with the rest of us riding behind and in front of him. Clearly, we still have some work to do with Graham’s bike riding instruction.

After we got home we watched some more of Mary Poppins before we realized it was late and the boys would soon be hungry for dinner. We all piled back into the Scion and asked the Doctor for a list of nearby restaurants. After an instructive but unproductive foray into a nearby subdivision of which we were previously unaware, we headed east on Sandy and watched as the Doctor’s list of restaurants changed. Eventually, Tina came up with the excellent idea of eating at The Truffle Hunter, a fixture of fine dining in Gresham for many years. We hadn’t been there in years but it had recently re-entered our consciousness when we had to drive by it to find dryer parts. We had remembered that they served giant sandwiches, but we had forgotten just how big those sandwiches were. Everybody ate half of their sandwich or less and then we all indulged in a delicious dessert.

All in all, it was a pretty good day for everyone and Tina is certainly glad to be a mom today.