Home again...post-Thanksgiving

Back in The Dalles for the weekend..a little parade action on Friday with the family. A lot of tooling around and playing with Greer - with Alex doing double duty. T.D. is growing with industry investment - Google is planting itself on the Columbia waterfront and 300k houses are being built on the heights. Its odd, but welcome - for a community so used to economic depression and industry bail-out.

Chris stopped in and is watching 24 Hours on Craigslist with me - while everyone else sleeps. The usual faire....family, food and late-nite films. It's been nice to relax for a bit....we'll be headed back tomorrow.

Some of you might know this, but Alex and I are going to be parents again! We went in last week to get an ultrasound on what we thought was a single child and found out that we are going to be having twin girls in 2006! Big news, anyone? I'm still a little speechless...

Halloween reunion

Apologies all around for the latest silence. As my last entry explained in great detail, things at the office are reaching critical mass and I haven't had the will to blog about it.

Thankfully, life throws you interesting curves now and then. Specifically, a call I recieved from a couple old jr high school buddies and their Halloween party last weekend. Don and Eric went to grade school/jr. high with me at Salem Private/Valley Christian in Keizer, OR. We have a few stories between us....of playing basketball, getting into trouble and going to school in a setting staffed by Bob Jones graduates. Oddly enough, the school grounds now serves as a police station. Coincidence?

Anyway, Don and Eric put together a great Halloween party. They decked the house with great props and lighting - and plenty of beer and grub for the masses. We had some great conversations - got to reminese a bit, and generally had a good time. Met some interesting folks through them as as well. Among them, a sound guy who is currently serving in the National Guard - and known as "Sarge" to his friends. We spoke about the war and his thoughts....and I was interested to hear about his reservations and misgivings about the rationale for Iraq. Hope he doesn't get called up.

Aside from too much brew and not enough heat (ended up sleeping in my toga) , it was great to see them both - and I hope to maintain contact with them a little more often. Both are attending PSU for electrical engineering - so I gotta get em' over for a visit.