the Force

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Originally uploaded by gregandchristine.

We capped off our long weekend with our first trip to OMSI They have a big STAR WARS exhibit for the next month or so. The museum is pretty cool, and Colin had fun running around and playing with the different things (they had a train). He hasn't seen the movies yet so he wasn't quite as impressed with the Star Wars portion of the museum. They had some cool props and some good info about the movies and how they were made. Darth Vader and the Storm Troopers really freaked out Colin, and we couldn't get him to pose for a picture or give any high5's. It was really wierd to see Darth hanging out waiting for the elevator.

the season

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Originally uploaded by gregandchristine.

We have started decorating for Christmas around the house. We put up the tree, and some lights around the living room. We started a little holiday scene in the window seat and I'll get some pics of that when it is done. Colin loves the lights and runs around shouting "lights" and pointing when we come home and they are not on. He also loves hanging the ornaments of the tree-- he likes to knock them off almost as much, so the only ones up so far are the unbreakable ones.

We are getting in the spirit early because it is so fun to watch COlin's eyes light up over and over again as we pull out more decorations... just wait until the presents start appearing...

right out of the bowl

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Originally uploaded by gregandchristine.

Colin once again almost slept through Thanksgiving, but he woke up in time to chow on some potatos. He didn't really care for much else of the traditional Thanksgiving fixin's so he had a hot dog, and mashed potatos. Later he stuck his hand in the pumpkin pie a few times and licked his hand clean (luckily grandma was packin' a spare). We did dinner at Christine's parent's house with our friends Lars and Jane from my program. Today we did our part to better the economy and take advantage of the holiday deals. We got some good stuff for Christmas, and I got a sweet deal on a ton of beer. I hope everyone had a great Thanksging and are enjoying the long weekend.

My Favorite Word

So, Colin is still not speaking as much or as clearly as many of his peers, but he is starting to use a wider range of discernible sounds. It has saved everyone a lot of frustration. I think of all the words he has, home is the one that I love hearing the most. When he says Mama it is sweet, when he says sorry it is too adorable to not forgive him, but there is something in the way he says home as we drive home from work that makes me content in a new way. Especially now that the holidays are bearing down upon us, I feel especially thankful that we have a home to call our own, even with the chocolate brown toilet and gutters that clog at the mere suggestion of wind mixed with our pine needles. I always thought that coming home to our own house would be the best feeling- I never knew it could be trumped merely by Colin mentioning the word, but somehow it has. Funny how things can surprise you.

his name was Dick...

...but he was actually a pretty nice guy. We are getting a few estimates on windows for our house. I made the mistake of entering a contest to win free windows, and I got a dozen phone calls from the Evans Glass company trying to set up an estimate. They always called when I was at work on in class and they never left a message. When we finally set up the appointment they didn't show up and called a couple days later to find out why we weren't home for our appointment. I told the guy we were here, and he said he would talk to his guy and see what happened. I had read a review of the company that said a high pressure salesman came to her house and told her the price was only good if she signed that night and wouldn't leave the estimate. I told the guy who set up the appointment that if they weren't going to give me a written estimate, and if they were going to play that game, I didn't want to bother with the appointment. He acted surprised to hear this and assured me that was not the way they normally did business.

He lied.

They sent this nice old man with his big binder of accolades and his magician's case of window bits. He went on and on for 2 hours about how great their windows are, how crappy everybody else's are... blah. He finally got to the price (which was 9k in materials cost for 6 windows and 2 doors). BUT IF WE SIGN RIGHT NOW! - 25% off. So lame. It took a while longer to convince him that there was really NO WAY we were committing to anything tonight before he finally left.

If you found this post searching for Evans Glass or Eurocraft windows... do your research first, and get your other estimates. Call them last, be prepared to give them three hours of your life, and see if their one time deal works for you. It doesn't for us.

Where I saw myself in 5 years

It was 5 years ago this weekend that we first visited Portland. It all started with findyourspot.com. We came up with Chris and Jacqui and spent the weekend getting lost and exploring the sights of the city and it's surrounding neighborhoods. There are places we have never found again, and places we have returned many times. We left very excited and ready to pack up and move. We visited again in April 2002 and again that summer. I applied for various jobs and was repeated denied for lacking a master's degree. There were a few times in SC where we threw up our hands and said screw it we're moving -- and then we finally did it. We made the commitment and announced our departure for the NW almost exactly 3 years from our first visit to Portland. Unfortunately we moved to Olympia on accident, but it only took up six months to correct that and land where we belonged, Portland OR.
Five years ago if you asked me where I saw myself, I would have told you in Portland with a kid and a house. I didn't expect to be in school, but I would have been able to predict the basics.

DIY

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Originally uploaded by gregandchristine.

A few weeks ago the window on the Hyundai stopped cooperating. If would complain heavily about moving and looked like a shark fin when it went down as far as it would go. We decided to see if we could fix it ourselves since we didn't really think we could make it worse. We popped off the door panel and poked around for a bit. It turned out one of the bolts that holds the window in place had fallen out. We couldn't find it inside the door so we ordered one and had to wait almost a week for it to arrive. 98 cents later Christine got the thing back in place and we put the whole thing back together. We were disappointed to find out that the window still moved very slowly and loudly, but at least it closed all the way so we could drive in the rain and park in public. Magically about a week later --it started working smoothly again!

So for only a dollar and a little pain and suffering we have a functioning window and saved a couple hundred bucks.