Planting trees

Marie and I woke up late and enjoyed our hotels breakfast. We then walked to find our rent-a-car, but had to take a taxi to another office because the downtown office was understaffed due to the recession. We picked up our car and drove into the Lower 9th ward. We met at a church in Holy Cross Parish and joined up with other volunteers. We picked up shovels, trees, and mulch. We all then went to one house to learn how to plant the trees. We all joined in putting a magnolia in the front yard of a resident, then Marie and I took off on our own to plant more.

The first house we went to was owned by a nice woman who helped us plant in her yard. She was very open into answering all of our questions and was very kind with sharing her story. She even invited us to a gumbo feed at her house at a later date. We then went to a woman's house and planted two small trees into planters. It was fast and easy. We then drove and dropped off our supplies. 5 trees and 3 hours to help rebuild. We did not feel as f we did much, but it was fun work.

We then went back into town to look for a good hot sausage po' boy (sub sandwich). We found a nice place, Dejavu, and then walked down to the riverfront. There is a nice river walk and a free ferry to the other side of the river. On the other side, Marie and I walked along the levee and watched the sunset over the city.

New Orleans

Marie left on Wednesday morning to fly to New Orleans for the National Science Teachers Association's National Conference. Last year we attended the conference in Boston. Like last year, Marie was given a free ride by a new teacher academy grant. Last year it was during our spring break so I went as well. This year the conference was a week before. I stayed in McMinnville and taught my last few days. On Wednesday I judged the high school battle of the bands competition and on Thursday I helped out a track meet. Friday, I ate 10 hotdogs in 10 minutes at lunch, then went to a movie with a friend and eventually cleaned up the house and made it to Portland at 1am. I went to the airport the next day at 6 am and started my trip to the big easy.

I got into New Orleans at about 6 pm. I found the hotel Marie was staying at and met up with her and our teacher friend Alyssa from grad school. We went out to eat at Crescent City Brewery and enjoyed some local fare.

We were standing in line and had a couple coupons for 2 for 1 but since there were three of us, we gave them to the two men behind us in line. We finished our meals at the same time and they came over to thank us. They were middle/high school teachers in Massachusetts. We all decided to go find music. We wandered the city stopping into bars and grabbing drinks to go and listening to one or two songs. We eventually met more teachers wandered to a "soul Party" which turned out to be just a dj at a bar, but it was fun music to dance to.


At about 2am, Marie and Alyssa were ready for bed. We went to Cafe Du Monde and ate Beignets, French donuts.

The girls went to bed and the guys we met took me down Bourbon St.

Needless to say, I got in a 6am and did not wake up for the 8 o'clock swamp tour.

Marie called and the alarm went off at 11 am and I woke up and checked out of the room. Marie and Alyssa showed up quickly after and we went and had lunch and walked through the Insectarium.
After, I was ready for a nap and Alyssa went to her airport shuttle. Marie and I checked into our new hotel and I slept and recovered from 3-7. Marie was just thankful there were people willing to stay out with me. I started feeling better at 9:00pm. We wandered the streets and found a nice eatery. Then went back to bed. We will volunteer for the next few days and return home on Thursday. I will post photos and updates.

Lucy

Marie found online that the bones of "Lucy" one of the oldest hominids ever found. We changed our plans for the weekend and drove to Seattle. On the drive, I registered my car and retitled it in Oregon. I officially own my own car. It also has Crater Lake plates!

We stopped in Kelso, Washington and ate dinner with Marie's childhood friend Lee. We ate deep fat fried onions, mushrooms and I had fish and chips. Great roadtrip food....

We also called the people we were staying with on the road to see if it was okay. Luckily Melody and Ira are gracious and said of course. We got in late Friday night and hit the hay.

On Saturday we woke up mid morning had breakfast at the house and drove to the Pacific Science Center. I had been there when I was in 2nd grade and one of the only things I remember is that they had lights on a wall that moved as fast as the fastest sprinter at the time. We would push the button and try and out run it. It wasn't there anymore. We walked into the DINOSAUR exhibit.

I am a little bit of a geek with dinos. We then walked through a great Earth and space center followed by a great amount of genetics information. It was impressive how much they had on genetics. Marie was also thrilled that there were Naked Mole Rats. Her favorite part of the Portland zoo is the rats and there was a whole section dedicated to them.

We then wandered through the bugs and insects section. Melody, our host, is a master's student studying spider DNA. She likes the creepy crawlies. We got to go to a tropical butterfly house too.

Then it was time for us to enter the Lucy exhibit. We walked into the maze of people and Ethiopian artifacts. The exhibit had much of the history of Ethiopia and it's culture. I learned much more about King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. I read a little about Ras Tafari this summer before our trip to Jamaica so I had a little (very little) Ethiopian history in my head.

There were pictures and descriptions about the history of the confluence of Islam, Judiasm and Christianity. There was also a place that described Ethiopian food. Marie loved the place to smell the spices.

They then had a place where you transition into Paleoarcheology and how they find fossils. I liked this part. It discussed index and trace fossils as well as absolute and radiometric dating. YEAH! They then had a ramp set up with casts of fossils of all the hominid skulls ever found, or at least the most complete skulls. It started with ancestors who were more like chimps than humans, and moved up through Lucy's species into homo erectus, homo neanderthals, and homo sapians. Then you enter a small room and the bones were there. It was incredible, awe inspiring and silent. I sat looking at the 3.18 million year bones for about 3 minutes in silence. They also had replicas of the bones set as if they were in a complete skeleton, they had a representation of what Lucy would have looked like and a mural moving through all the hominids into homo sapiens. I wish my students could have been there. It was a very good way of explaning evolution, and human evolution which as we all know is a touchy subject. I have students this year trying to complain about it during a physical science class. There were no cameras allowed sadly.

Marie and I drove home that night after we stopped for some Ethiopian food. Marie also picked up an Ethiopian cook book.
Today we graded papers, ran, cleaned the house, and got ready for our week. Just two more weeks until Spring Break!

Itzhak

Marie and I bought tickets to the symphony as they had a special guest, Itzhak Perlman. I was in middle school when I first heard the Schindler's List soundtrack and began to appreciate his work. I have seen him numerous times on television and he was at the Innaguration this year. We showed up as the doors were closing and ran to our seats. The orchestra was a lot smaller than we were used to. They tuned and the doors opened on the side of the stage. Thunderous applause and a standing ovation welcomed the special guest, who has limited use of his legs so he uses crutches attached to his arms. His labored walk to the front only made the crowd cheer louder in anticipation for getting to hear his violin.

They began quickly, and danced through the first song. 16 minutes may seem like a long song, but when you are listening to such amazing music, it went by in a flash. It was the first symphony I had attended that people clapped between every movement.

Mr. Perlman walked off to a standing ovation, came back for a curtain call, and then we all realized,...thats it. We won't get to hear any more. A larger group came out, and Itzhak conducted a piece by Schubert. He told the audience that Schubert told him he did not want the clapping between each movement. He was ok with it, but Schubert wouldn't let us.

There was an intermission and then he came back out to conduct a Brahms Symphony. This was the first time I had been to a symphony that I had not heard any of the pieces played prior. The Brahms was fun, the first movement was 20 minutes long and there were hints to his lullaby.

Marie and I feel cultured. We have been to three symphony concerts this season, a ballet and a few other concerts. Next season there are some great ones including Beethoven's 5th, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, and Itzhak is coming back.

Pac-10 Basketball

I need to apologize to all the Beaver fans out there. On February 21st, I attended the first University of Oregon Mens Basketball PAC -10 win of the season. I sat with Marie's Dad and friend who had season tickets and watched the ducks beat the Cardinal of Stanford. I was invited back as a possible good luck charm for the next weekend. I told the men that I would be sporting Beaver colors and not the yellow and Green of the U of O. Sadly to say I may have been the lucky charm for the Ducks as they came back in the second half to cream the beavers. Sad Sad year for civil war games that I attended.

ZOO!

I asked Nick and Melissa if there was anything they wanted to see before they left. They said the zoo. I rushed them there, and we ran through the zoo in a couple of hours. I had forgotten about the new baby elephant, but it was AWESOME! The mama elephant would use her trunk and the baby would mime her. The mom then used her trunk to spray water on the floor to show the baby how to drink from the trunk. The baby started to pick it up, but just started splashing in it. I could have watched it for hours.


Another highlight was the Larakeet house where you can buy a nectar cup and the birds jump all over you.

Saturday February 7th!

We decided to take our guests to Portland. My friend James thought the Portland underground would be a good place to tour. I had heard of the Shanghai tunnels but I had never been there. We met up about 3 at a pub and shared some drinks. James, Nick, Melissa, Marie, myself and another one of my friends Jon ventured down into the seedy underbelly of the Rose City. Portland was one of the leaders in Shanghai-ing and the inventor city according to our guide. Ship captains would pay people to gather drunks to complete ship crews. They also captured woman and sold them into sex trade. It was quite the gruesome practice. The tour was about an hour and a half and we saw a few different rooms and traveled under a few different buildings. We saw alarm systems, an opium den, stood in cells, saw the closet where they hold women, saw a trap door and a wooden indian that was once sold as a sailor. It was a fun tour.

We went back above ground and Nick, Melissa, Marie and I had to get ready for a symphony. As we approached the door, I stopped at the will call window to pick up our four tickets. They sent me to customer service because they couldn't find them. I went in, asked for four tickets together and they found some for us. There was a sale on and I ordered 4 $20 tickets instead of $50 tickets. The man informed me that the tickets he gave me were slightly more than what we paid. We walked to our seats and found ourselves in the SEVENTH ROW! I have never been able to hear individual instruments so well during an orchestra's show. It was incredible. The tickets when not on sale are $130. We saw the Concerto de Aranjuaz with a great classical guitarist and one of my favorites, Stravinsky's Firebird. It was incredible.

We then went down to the Pearl district and karaoked with our friend from high school Jake. He was the Karaoke Jockey and it was his first night. Nick and I both sang two songs and then made our way home.

Photos from Friday

My pal Nick

My buddy Nick from high school just graduated with his music education degree. I was the best man at his wedding two years ago and I never got him a present. Marie and I decided to gift Nick and his pregnant wife, Melissa, to a trip to Oregon. I picked them up late Thursday night and took Friday off from school to hang out with them. On Friday I took them around McMinnville and Carlton. I had never been to the Evergreen Air Museum. We took in the Spruce Goose and all of the other planes. It was very enjoyable. We also walked around a nice little park and played Scrabble in one of the coffee shops. It was great catching up and laughing constantly. Marie joined us and then we went out to our local joint, the Horse Radish to take in the local fare of cheese and wine. Nick also played SNL Trivial Pursuit with me. I got it as a gift two years ago for Christmas, but nobody ever plays with me. Melissa and Marie began playing with us, but neither made it to the end. I won, barely. It was a great day.

Obama sign

Marie took down our Obama for president sign today. I guess it is ok. I still have a Kucinich poster in the window. The sign served as a snow gauge for us while it was snowing. We could see how deep our yard was getting buried by how much of the sign was left showing.

Life is good. I cleaned my desk up yesterday with all my loose papers from the last six months. As I found different photos, papers, cards, etc. that I wanted to keep I put them in a box filled with memorabilia. It is fun to reflect every once in a while and look at the past.
This week also teased me with a little sunshine. I am anxious for Spring now. I can't wait to get out and run. I am running now when it is sunny and with the Frisbee club at the high school, but I am excited to challenge myself through spring, summer and fall this year. The last two years I have started in August to try and get in shape. I am hopeful to run more this year.

The end of our fist semester is next Friday. I finished writing my final today and will review for a couple of days with my students. My last indoor soccer game is tomorrow.

January

This month started with a trip to Black Butte Ranch to celebrate the new year with Marie's Family. We spent New Years Eve eating, drinking, playing boardgames, and playing the new Wii that Marie's parents got for Christmas. On New Years day we watched football and enjoyed each others company. On the 2nd, which is Marie's sister's birthday we went to hoodoo ski area and did a cross country ski loop. We then drove into Bend and enjoyed Deschutes Brewery and visiting with a friend from grad school. Marie and I drove home on the 3rd to get ready for our first week back at school. We had a successful first week and the Friday there was a Led Zeppelin tribute band concert in Corvallis. I even got on stage to play Bron Yr Stomp during the encore to play the tambourine.

The next week I slowly got sick as Marie and I played soccer late on Monday in an indoor league, Tuesday I went to a comedy show in Portland, Wednesday I wrote my final, Friday I went to Eugene to spend the night with friends. I drove home Saturday and then Sunday celebrated Marie's birthday with friends up in Forest Grove. We played disc golf, pool and took a dip in a soaking tub. The whole week I had no voice which made it fun for my students and friends.

On Tuesday was the innaguration of Obama. Our school the coverage playing in pretty much every classroom and gathering space. It was nice to see students get excited, many of them too young to vote. Tuesday Night we had a few friends over to watch the Daily show. I found out that my brother, his wife and my sister all were at the Washington Monument to watch the ceremony. Amazing. I am now finding myself with a calm weekend leading up to finals week and the end of the first semester for our high school this year. I feel that it has gone well and my failure rate should be less than last year. I hope this 2009 finds all in good health and spirits. Let us be optimistic about where our lives are traveling and hope that in our times of struggles we find renewed hope and strength.

The rest of the holidays

Christmas day was fabulous. All of the siblings awoke and we opened presents before noon. It was all very civil and organized. We ate brunch and everyone went for a walk in the hills. We stopped by a cattle water tank to chop ice that had formed from a week of sub-zero weather. After we cleared a good half, we went back home and the boys made dinner. It was probably the first time we had all worked on a meal together without too much guidance from our mother and probably with the least amount of arguing!

The next day we went to Great Falls and visited cousins who drove to meet us halfway. We shared laughter, pizza and beer. The time spent together was way too short.
While in Montana Marie and I had fun skiing, snowboarding and just spending time with family. The day we left, the wind was howling and part of the drive to the train was in a white out. My brother Scott agreed to drive us while my other siblings left to Great Falls to depart. Marie and I boarded the train successfully, four hours after original departure time. As soon as we left the station we were told a freight train had derailed on the West side of the state and we would not leave the state until 10 am the next morning. When we got to Shelby Montana, the train stopped and our conductor told us because of avalanche danger, we would not leave Shelby for 7 hours. We were free to roam around town until then. Marie and I found a bar with a pool table and good bar food. We then went to a grocery store and a movie. It was a nice unplanned date in the middle of our vacation. We then got back on the train and slept mostly until Spokane. We walked around the platform there and had a chance to stretch our legs.
We finally arrived in Portland late at night and found our car with the chains still on. The snow had long since melted and it was raining. We drove home for a well deserved night sleep.