February 2024

The Superb Owl
As per longstanding tradition, we hosted the Carneys for Super Bowl Sunday — many snacks and drinks, and an actual good game that even the kids came in to the movie room to watch. Lukas, unfortunately, ended the night with a 104.5 temp; he missed the whole week of school, and on Friday we found out it was pneumonia! We got him on antibiotics and he perked up quickly, assuring us that he was well enough to go on our trip to Portland the next morning … 

Portland trip
So, off we went to Portland with the Patels! Straight from the airport, we took the Beast (another 8-seat SUV) to the area of the city where Beverly Cleary lived and wrote, to see some sites like her old neighborhood and these statues in a park featuring characters from her books. Then we found our house, settled in and ordered dinner. The next day, we went to a big retro arcade called Ground Kontrol (they had a WOPR, which was my favorite detail of the place’s decor), and then had dinner at McMenamins Kennedy School — a multi-space bar and restaurant housed in a converted elementary school. We took a day to drive to Astoria to see a bunch of Goonies sites — Mikey & Brand’s house, the jail, the museum where their dad worked, various places in town where scenes were shot — and continued down the coast, having lunch at Buoy Brewing Co. and stopping for amazing views, ending the day at Cannon Beach (where the ship sails out to sea at the end of the movie) near sundown. Other days, we spent a bunch of time at Powell’s City of Books and Blick Art Supply store, hit up Voodoo Donut, found a cool neighborhood brunch place where we all sat at the counter, took a grownups night out with Annika holding the fort at home, toured the Pittock Mansion and the Japanese Gardens, had an amazing brunch at Mother's, walked to OMSI and Guardian Games, went downtown for a fantastic seafood dinner, and stayed up way too late playing an epic game of Monopoly — which I won, lol — the night before departure. The gritty eyes and rushed packing the next day were totally worth it!

School and whatnot
—Castillero Colloquium: Lukas’s presentations, on two separate nights, went smashingly! Most of the kids in the history session presented in pairs or groups, but he was the first solo presenter, dedicating it to Annika (for getting him into history); he was so at ease, he had total strangers coming up, saying he was awesome and adorable. The next night was for ELA, and he read a selection from his writing, once again suffering zero stage fright and just hitting it out of the park. (This one he dedicated to me, for inspiring his interest in reading and writing … awww!) We were all so proud of him!
—D&D: One windy, rainy Sunday, Lukas hosted the Blade fellas at our house for D&D instead of going out on the moors (the Los Alamitos playground). I don’t know a thing about how the game works, but the kids had a great time.
—Badminton: Tryouts were this month; Annika and CJ made the team, but other friends didn’t, which was a little bit awkward but soon blew over. She started practices Monday through Thursday after school.