My honey...watching the hydroplanes doing their testing on the Columbia River yesterday. In between boat runs, she's been reading -- studying hard to make sure her new little business performs well. It's really neat to see how excited she is about the new business. After being a weenie about taking the plunge, I'm really excited about the business now, too.


This is one of the 'little boats' running in the electric race I went to on July 23 in Tacoma.

This is one of the big boats we're watching race this weekend in the Tri-Cities.

Boat racing season

Hi everyone!
I know it's been quite some time since I last blogged. Sorry about that. This weekend, we're over in the Tri-Cities for the unlimited hydroplane races. It's great to be here because the boat racing has been a part of my life since my dad introduced me to the "world's fastest race boats" in 1979. I've been coming to the Tri-Cities, and Seattle, for the races ever since. That's actually how I got involved with the model boat racing. It's been a lot of fun.

My involvement with the hydros has evolved somewhat over the last few years. From being a fan, and a model racer, I met a few people who introduced me to other people, and before I knew it, I was the PR guy for one of the teams (Superior Racing Team). It's something I've wanted to do for a long time, so I went with it. This year, I met the guy who's heading up the media relations efforts for the entire series, and he asked me to fill in for him at the Tri-Cities race this year. So that's what I've been doing so far this weekend.

Yesterday, that took up a lot of my time, and my wonderful wife (who I probably don't give enough credit to by telling her how wonderful she is most of the time), was bored, and I don't blame her. I was wrong. So, while she sleeps in at the hotel today, I'm going to get all of my work done...then when she calls me and is ready to head back to the park, I'll come get her and we'll enjoy the rest of the day together -- like we usually do over here.

Sorry honey. You're the bestest!!!

Last week, we were supposed to have an ERCU (that's my model boat club) race in Seattle. It was cancelled at the last minute, and I really wanted to race, since it had been more than a month since the last race, and I had boat damage that had been repaired so I wanted to see how it ran. Dawn was looking forward to a day away, too, and we were both disappointed when the news of the cancellation came down.

We did a little research and found out that there's another club in the Seattle area that is very similar to ours. It's called Classic Thunder. We ended up going to their race and really had a good time -- except the weather was way too hot. The guys were all very nice to me, and treated me well. I ended up getting second in the consolation final and was the alternate for the final heat. All in all, it wasn't a bad day.

Dawn

Well let's see... Tuesday was a "healing" day. I've had a pulled or strained muscle in back for days. Tuesday, I just babied it all day. Heat and ice. Trying not to use it. Lot's of Advil. It has been getting quite a bit better.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about whether or not to buy the video store. I've pretty much decided that I will. It really is just what I've been looking for. I'll be able to keep my job at AllRisk working Monday's and Friday's, which I really want to do. And I think it will be fun. It's a new adventure. If I can make it successful, I hope to open one in downtown Vancouver someday soon. There is not a video store at Jantzen Beach or downtown Vancouver or the Linclon district. So I think it might be a good location. But I have to learn how to do it first. I'm excited, and Nelson is supportive of whatever I want to do, he's a sweetie.

Nelson went to Mick's last night for "boat night". He is building his own boat this year from scratch. He brought it in to show it to me last night when he got home, it looks really good. Tons of small little cut out pieces of wood all hooked together. It looks like balsa wood, but it's not. But he's loving it. He's good with his hands...wink wink.

Luka feels like he did pretty well on the Washington Bar tests. His last one was this morning. Now, like Brooke, he waits like 2 months to get the results, ugh!

Saturday its their 2 year anniversary. They're spending the weekend in Seattle.

I met Brooke for lunch yesterday to see her new "Do" (haircut). It's really cute. I'll post a picture following.

We're going to Tri-Cities for the weekend. We've both taken tomorrow off. It's the "BIG" hydroplane races this weekend. It's an annual event for us. It will be fun to see all of our friends from Nelson's old boat club that we haven't seen for a long time. The guy in charge of media couldn't make this race so he's asked Nelson to fill in for him. I guess he has to arrange interviews after each race, and some other things, but I've forgotten what. Nelson got sponsers for one of the drivers (Dr. Ken), so we get free passes and free hotel rooms. So that's cool. (I guess they're not really free, since he got the sponsors without getting paid for that). But it's great!

Well... I guess nothing else is new. I'll keep in touch.

Dawn

Brooke's new haircut.

Dawn

Well, let's see...Friday night there was a little Jazz festival in Estacada that we went to. It was a beautiful night and it was really fun. I was trying to scope out the town to get a feel about getting my "maybe" new business involved in this next year. It was a whole weekend thing. Brooke and I went out on Saturday to check out the activities. We found a great used book store. I showed her my "maybe" business for the first time. She thought it was really cute with potential. It really is a cute little store in a cute little town.

I've been going over the books for the business. I'm a little disouraged. I was hoping that is was sustaining itself a little bit better. I've got more bookwork to go over that I recieved today. Her books have been kept like a first time business owner in a small town, so they're not real accurate. But I really do think some of my ideas would make it a little more successful. I may have a professional appraisal done. She definitely is bringing in a lot more money now than she was a year ago, before she put the coffee bar in, but her expenses have almost kept up with the income increase.

But the absolute big news of the day is that...BROOKE GOT A GREAT JOB TODAY. As an attorney for a very prominent family law practice here in Vancouver, Weber and Gunn. Good pay and great benefits. And she really wanted to work there. She interviewed today and about 20 minutes later they called and offered her the job. She will have her own office and her own paralegal, with talk of possible partnership in several years. We are all thrilled. Craig and Nelson and Steph and Lou and I took her out for celebration drinks at who songs tonight. It was a lot of fun. You guys better all be nice to her now for future free legal advice! lol. I really am so happy for her. I so much wanted her living in Vancouver, but I would have felt terible if I begged her to live here then she couldn't find a job...but now she has...awsome.

This is at the Jazz Festival in Estacada on Friday night. These kind of outings are almost right next door to my video/espresso store that I may buy. A really good location.

dawn

Nelson at the Jazz festival at Estacada on Friday night. This is about a block away from the business I might buy.

We won a prize!!

At the golf tournament today, we won a prize! None of us in the foursome I played in today was a very good golfer today. Ken (my boss), you can tell, is really good...but he didn't have a great day with his short game or putting. Ken hit about four putts that looked like they were going in for birdies only to see them lip out. He was awesome off the tee, though. Brian (publisher of the local paper) and I both kind of let the team down a little, but Jeff (an attorney) was the guy who really carried us. Anyway, we finished the tournament with a wonderful 1-over par.

At the awards dinner later, we found out that our 1-over was good for the "High Gross" of the tournament, which meant we finished dead last. But each of the four of us got a gift certificate for $25 from the pro shop at the golf course!

It really was a fun day. I was totally OK with being outside in the sun on a Thursday afternoon.

Tomorrow, we have another live TV remote, on AM Northwest between 9-10 a.m. on Channel 2 in Portland. I've put together arrangements with the "roving reporter" for the show to come and do a remote promoting National Ice Cream Month and the Golden Scoop Awards (mentioned below). I'm looking forward to the remote, but even better is that it's a good thing for our client.

That's it for now.

This is Nelson's latest creation in our yard. It really turned out nice.

If you look really hard, you can not only see the I-5 bridge, foreground but you can see the 205 bridge also. This is taken from our front deck.

Another view from our deck. These hot days sure make for beautiful evenings.

Another picture from my deck this morning. These pictures sure upload fast. Boy it brings back memories of our trip when we were using our cell phones to upload these pictures. That was sometimes an all evening ordeal. Great memories though.

This is a picture through the window of Brooke's dining room at their new house. It's got hardwood floors throughout the entire house. Really nice.

This is Brooke and Luka's new house in downtown Vancouver.

Dawn

I found some of these pictures I forgot thatI had on my camera. This is Brooke and Luka at Brooke's swearing in for her Law Bar. She's going to kill me for this one.

"Client Relations Management"

So, as Dawn said, I'm getting paid to play golf this afternoon. It's a work thing, but my friend Mick did ask if, "because you're getting paid to play golf, does that make you a pro?".

Uhh...I guess, technically it does. But my scorecard won't show it. I promise that. I'm playing in a golf tournament this afternoon in West Linn, Ore. Its a benefit event put on by the West Linn Chamber of Commerce. One of our clients at KO (where I work) is Market of Choice...one of the tournament's sponsors because they're opening a store in West Linn this September. We're currently in the community relations phase of our PR plan for Market of Choice, so that's created the opportunity for my boss (Ken) and I to play in the tournament. It'll be a great opportunity for me to meet a lot of people, to talk about Market of Choice, and about the agency!

That's where the "Client Relations Management" thing comes in. Around the office we call it "CRM". It's pretty much simply schmoozing our clients and taking good care of business. It's a very good thing.

Yesterday was fun, even though I had to get up at 3 a.m. One of our clients that I'm doing PR work for, the Oregon Dairy Products Commission (which includes the Dairy Farmers of Oregon) is promoting National Ice Cream Month (which is July) with the Golden Scoop Awards Program (go to www.dairyfarmersor.com for more), and we did a series of live remotes for the morning news on KGW (our local NBC affiliate) from an old fashion drugstore soda fountain at the Hillsboro Pharmacy. It turned out great. The client was thrilled and the station was really happy with the way things went...which is good for our agency, because it means the station will be happy to work with us more in the future on other story ideas we have! I'm having so much fun with my new job!!

Tomorrow night Dawn and I will be going out to Estacada to spend some fun time at a little outdoor jazz event in a park block located right next to the video store she's buying. We're excited to see the event and to just kind of start getting a little bit involved in the community there.

Saturday, I'm going to spend some time with my friend Doug Kelly, who we met working at the World Baseball Classic. He's in town to do the TV work for the American LeMans Series auto race at Portland International Raceway. I'll probably work on my boat for awhile, too. We're planning to go to Tacoma on Sunday for a race with "the other" electric club in the area. There was a race scheduled with the club I'm in, but it was cancelled due to poor racing conditions at the race course we'd reserved...and I've been looking forward to racing as it's been more than a month since the last time I was out.

That's it for now. I'll post results of the golf tournament later.

Dawn

I met with the realtor today regarding the profit and loss statements of my new video/espresso store. I'm looking forward to going over that this evening and tomorrow. We stopped by the shop. There was a steady line of customers...that's a good sign. I really like the atomosphere in there. There are 2 other video stores in town that are bigger. And several other espresso shops. So I'm really looking forward to the challenge of making mine stand out. None of them have an espresso shop and a movie store. So Brooke, Luka , Nelson and I have been coming up with lots of good ideas to think about. I'm really excited!

Brooke got a call back for an interview with Weber and Gunn, an attorney here in town that she would love to get a job with. Her interview is Monday. Keep your fingers crossed. Luka takes his Bar next week. Let's keep our fingers crossed again.

I saw Steph for a few minutes this morning. She was going to the river with a bunch of friends from work. She is a happy go lucky little thing. Not a care in the world. I do enough worrying about her life for the both of us.

Nelson got a spot for one of his clients on channel 8 news this morning. He had to get up at 3:00 this morning to be there. He was happy with the way it went though, so that was good. Tommorrow he is schmoozing prospective clients at a golf tournament all afternoon. He is looking forward to that...he's a great schmoozer, because he's so friendly.

I had fun driving my new car today.

Talk to you next time.

Dawn

Well, everyone gave us such a hard time about stopping the blog that "WE'RE BAAACK".

We had such a wonderful trip and it was so fun to share it with all of our friends and family, but it does feel good to be home. Brooke and Luka found an adorable house in downtown Vancouver. Luka is studying for the Bar and Brooke is still looking for a job.

I love being able to see Steph a lot more. Even if she does make me worry about her all of the time.

I'm working at AllRisk on Monday's and Friday's. I just made an offer on a little video/espresso shop in Estacada. It doesn't really make any money right now, but it pays for itself. With full time employees so I can come and go when I want. I have some fun ideas I'm looking forward to try to make the business grow. I'm really looking forward to the new challenge.

We finally sold the motorhome and I gave in and bought a new car today. Well...new to me. It's a 2004 Kia Amanti. It's really nice and I love it. I justified buying it because we sold our nice cars to buy the motorhome, so I wanted to have one again....but actually the Saturn I was driving was fine.

Nelson is working at a PR firm in downtown Portland. He loves it. The people there respect his knowledge and are encouraging him to grow with the company. Much better than the constant "stay in your place attitude" of his last job. Noslen did very well while we were on the road. But I guess the non-steady paycheck did scare me a little. He'd have a bunch of clients for awhile and then they would die down a little with not much money coming in, then it would pick up again...It was a little nerve racking(sp?). So I am vey happy with his new job, as is he.

Judie finally got her little yorkie , Gus. He is adorable and growing fast.

We've had a couple of little get-togethers on our deck with our fantastic view since we've been home. It is nice to be home. I just need roots, I guess. Of course that's a lot easier to say without the pouring down rain everyday.

Well, we'd love to hear from anyone who's reading again.

Talk to you later.

Hi again everyone!!

Hey everyone!
First of all, we made it home safely from our trip on April 12 . . . if you didn't already know that.

Secondly, we've decided to start blogging again. It may not be as exciting as our little travel log from our winter trip. But yesterday at a family event, we realized how many people were interested in reading about other people's lives, so we're going to start blogging again. We probably won't do it every day, but we'll definitely try to do it pretty regularly.

So here's a start . . . Since we returned home, we lived in the motorhome at a nice RV Park in Ridgefield, Wash., for a couple of weeks honoring our deal with Steph to live in our place through May. It didn't take long before we told Steph we wanted to move back into the house (HEY! We were excited), and refunded some money to her . . . which, I think, helped convince her to agree with it. So we're all settled back in to our lovely home on the Columbia River, and very happy about it. I've been to a few boat races this spring/summer and haven't faired too poorly. I've been in the final heat at three of the five races and I'm currently fifth in the points standings. Not too bad considering my goal is to finish the season in the top 10. My yard is whipped back into shape, and I've done a lot of work on it. I decided to close up my business when I got a new job! I was doing a 30-day contract at a company named Koopman Ostbo, which is a marketing communication agency in Portland, and three weeks into that contract, they made me an offer for full-time employment that I just couldn't refuse. I've been VERY happy working there. Dawn's got a lot of fun news to report, too, so I'm sure she'll do that before long.

I've got other news as well, but I don't want to bore you all with it too much right off the bat. We'll get all caught up before long. And before long, we'll start posting pictures again, too.

Hope you're all still checking in on our blog, and that you'll continue reading!