News from 2005

Our website provider changed servers a few weeks ago and, as a result, Tina's blog has been offline since. Although you can see old entries, she's unable to post new ones and you can't add comments. I'm working on getting that fixed but she wanted me to mention it for anyone who is wondering where she's been. Anyone out there know much about databases in Movable Type?

Friday evening I rode in my second Critical Mass ride. Critical Mass is a celebration of bicycling held on the last Friday of the month in cities around the world. I rode in my first Mass last month, but it was very rainy and there weren't many people. This month was a whole different story. I think there were 200 or more riders and most of them were wearing Halloween costumes. Aside from a couple of authoritarian cops, it was a very fun time.

I've been continuing work on the Family Wikis (here and here) including getting more information from the family history documents I got from my mom. The subject matter is really fascinating for me and it's turned into a real labor of love.

Tina was away for the weekend at a scrapbooking event at Kah-nee-ta, so the boys and I had a boys-only weekend. They had Friday off from school, so they got to go to work with me and then play poker Friday night. I busted them out in about 5 hands, but they still had a good time. Yesterday we had a Cub Scout function (pumpkin buying) and then we went to Wunderland in the evening. I think they really enjoyed it but they were sure glad to see their mom when she got home this afternoon.

I have added more and more pictures to the family wikis (The Ring Family and The Christensen Family). I also wrote directions for uploading pictures so other people can add them. Did I mention that you can help, too? Well, you can! Anybody can edit a wiki and these wikis are no exception. Here's an excellent example of how great a page can be. Note the "edit" link at the top allows anyone to contribute content.

It took a couple weeks, but I finally got my power supply replaced. This is the first my computer has been "up" since my last entry. I found a company that exchanges your broken power supply for a refurbished one. They pay the shipping in both directions and the net cost is less than the wholesale cost of a new power supply. It worked out pretty well, even though I didn't have a computer for a couple of weeks.

I finally got my new iPod this week. Unfortunately, the hard drive doesn't work right, so I was going to return it to Amazon for replacement. Amazon estimates a replacement will ship in December. I called the local Apple Store and they said that they keep replacements around for immediate exchange. They even have my model, which is out of production! We have an Apple Store a few blocks from work, so I'll exchange it on Monday.

People are still contributing time and information to the The Ring Family Tree Project and The Christensen Family Tree Project. Last weekend I put in a bunch of info I got from some family history documents my mother sent me. I also spruced up the layout a bit. Anybody can edit a Wiki, so if you want to contribute it's as easy as clicking the "Edit" button and typing away!

I totalled about 200 miles on my bike during September and met my goal of not driving to work for the whole month. Critical Path also met our goal of 20% participation and 10% trip percentage. The rain has begun here and so far I'm hanging in. It's much harder to motivate yourself when you know the ride ends with soaked clothes.

The power supply blew on my home computer. I'm borrowing a power supply from work this weekend.

Well, I'm another full year older and none the wiser. We celebrated at this fabulous Greek restaurant with Uncle Buddy. I got a new iPod for my birthday (although it hasn't arrived yet) as well as a few CDs that I've really been wanting. All in all, a very good birthday. I can't wait for the iPod to get here - I've grown so used to having music on my bike ride to/from work.

My sister got me some great pictures of our family from yesteryear. I have incorporated some into The Ring Family Tree Project and The Christensen Family Tree Project. I've added pages for almost all members of the family and the basic outline should be in there soon. It's really picking up momentum! You can be a part of it, too!

After three years of faithful service, my little iPod has bitten the dust. Actually, the hard drive has begun to fail. I could get it fixed but I'd be halfway to the cost of a new iPod. Although I love the new iPod nano, it doesn't have the capacity that I really need. My old iPod was a 10Gb unit and I think I need at least 6Gb. I found a great deal on a 20Gb unit that I think I'll be very happy with. One drawback is that it doesn't ship until the 27th. That's two weeks of riding without music. Argh!

So far I have succeeded in riding my bike to work every day this month. It's been great weather for it and I can tell that I'm back in riding shape. I had my first "rain ride" on Friday and it wasn't too bad.

Work continues on The Ring Family Tree Project and The Christensen Family Tree Project. I've made navigation a little bit easier and uploaded some pictures that I've had scanned for some time. Cousins Sue and Kathy have contributed significantly and it's really starting to take shape. Check it out and contribute. It's easier than you can imagine.

I found a great site during the initial aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It's called Crooks And Liars and may be preaching to the choir, but I don't care. I've added it to my Cool Links page, which has undergone a bit of a makeover.

My back is much better. I took muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatories all last week and by the weekend it felt pretty good. I made an effort not to sit on the couch all weekend and now it feels normal again. I think being on the bike helps alot.

Speaking of biking, this month the Portland Bicycle Transportation Alliance is sponsoring their annual Bike Commute Challenge. Employees compete on behalf of their companies to see who can log the most bike commuting days. I'm going to try to bike to work every day this month. It's overdue for me, anyway, since I've missed many of the best biking days this summer. And I really need to get "in the groove" before it get's too rainy. I don't want to become easily dissuaded from riding with a little bad weather.

Thomas and Graham start school tomorrow. This will be Graham's first day at Margaret Scott, where Thomas has been attending since he was in 1st grade. Thomas will be in 4th grade and Graham in 1st. This will also mark the first time that they have the same school hours, which will be great for Tina.

Work has been great lately. Since the "big project" ended at the end of July, I've been fixing bugs on a project that is wrapping up and there is very little pressure. Today we kicked off a new project which I will be leading. It's very exciting and I'm looking forward to learning a bunch of new (to me) technologies.

On Sunday, I was moving some of the kids toys around outside when I suddenly felt a twinge in my back. I immediately went into some stretching exercises, but it didn't do much good. I stayed home from work Monday and stayed flat on my back all day. By Tuesday I was pretty ambulatory in the morning so I went to work, but by the evening I was pretty sore. This morning it feels pretty normal, so I'm getting back on my bike. Let's hope for the best. I've come to the conclusion that these back incidents are now a normal part of my life and I should expect them to rear their ugly head occasionally. I hate getting old!

A couple of months ago, Apple introduced podcast support into iTunes. I had been reading about podcasts for about a year prior and had been meaning to investigate, so Apple's announcement was definitely well-timed for me. Here are some of my favorite podcasts:

• Coverville: Familiar music played by unfamiliar artists. Simply my favorite.
• Drug Music: An eclectic blend.
• CNN Hourly Updates
• ESPN Radio Podcast

I'm continuing to add information to The Ring Family Tree Project. If you are a Ring relative and you haven't been there yet, you definitely should check it out. It's really easy to contribute. My goal is for it to be the a reference for the entire family. It can only get there with your help.

If you're last name is not Ring, I've started work on The Christensen Family Tree Project to document the other side of my family tree. If you are a relative of mine on the Christensen side, check it out and help me out.

As you can tell by my bike odometer reading, I have returned to riding my bike. When work got so busy, it became impractical to ride, especially when I was working 16 to 18 hour days. It feels good to be back on the pedals, but it's amazing how quickly the body deteriorates. I really have to work in spots that were once a breeze. I'm hoping I'm up to par soon. I had a cold resulting in a long weekend starting Friday, but I'm mostly better now and looking forward to a good ride this morning. The weather is so nice right now so I really should do the full ride to work a few times before summer is over. It's not terribly hard, but it is almost 14 miles so I have to gear myself up for it.

If you haven't been following Tina's gastro-intestinal difficulties on her website, I recommend that you go there for the details. Since the gall bladder removal, she has still been having problems with diarrhea, the feeling of burning after she eats and a decreased appetite. After several go-arounds with her doctors, they concluded that most of her symptoms are likely side effects from the surgery that will hopefully decrease or go away altogether in six months to a year. This is good news because they had previously feared that she might have Crohn's Disease, which is treatable but not curable.

As part of the investigation process, she had to undergo a colonoscopy a couple of weeks ago in order to rule out Crohn's. During the procedure, the doctor discovered a small polyp, which he removed. Although he didn't suspect anything, standard procedure dictated that the polyp evaluated. They found that the polyp was malignant and the doctor told Tina that she would have died within five years if it had not been discovered. This likely means that Tina is predisposed to and at a higher risk for colon cancer. We are going to have to undergo some lifestyle changes in the near future!

Work climaxed in a flurry of hours that was just mind-boggling and mind-bending. It seemed like every moment of my time was consumed by work. For about a week, I woke up, went to work for 18 or more hours and then came home. Repeat until very, very tired. The whole thing finally ended on Monday morning after we did our final "build" and the client accepted it. The client is extremely happy and our team is very, very relieved. What an experience!

Thomas is off to Cub Scout Camp for a couple of nights starting this afternoon. I'm excited for him but Tina is sad to see him go off on his own. I think he's going to have a great time. All of my memories from Cub Scout Camp are pleasant, except for one.

That particular incident occurred when I was a Webelo (the oldest possible Cub Scout), I believe. We were at a winter camp and there was a daylong competition involving various scouting skills like using a compass, etc. Well, our team did pretty badly all day and we were probably in last place going into the final event of the day: the sled race. The sleds were similar to those pulled by sled dogs but adapted for human power. The sled contained a load of some sort and one of the team members was to ride in back. On each side were two handles for pushing the sled. We were to essentially race against another team across half a football field length (or so) and back. Four members of the team would push one way, four others on the return trip. We pushed our little hearts out but we were behind at the turn. As the replacements jumped in, I noticed that we had one too many scouts pushing. I yelled for him to stop pushing, but our scout leader hushed me, saying, "Be quiet. We haven't won an event all day." That was my last year as a scout.

Hey! If you haven't checked out the Ring Family Tree Project yet, please do. It's at ringfamily.wikispaces.org. Anybody who wants to help with dates, facts, memories, etc. can contribute at any time. All of the pages can be edited by anyone. Get on there and add your birthday and anniversary. Add a favorite memory about your mother or father or grandparent. It's a collaborative project and I really need your help!

At work we've been using a Wiki to help communicate all of the information relevant to our project. I've always liked the Wiki concept and once I had actually contributed to one, I loved it. Essentially, a Wiki is a website that anyone can modify. The only tool required is a web browser. Formatting is simple and linking is simpler than HTML.

I've been wanting to make a Wiki myself for a few months now and finally got around to it this last weekend. It's an extension of the Family Tree project that I started a few years ago. It's hosted by a free service called Wikispaces.org and is located at ringfamily.wikispaces.org. Please take a look and if you think that you can contribute, have at it! I've included instructions for editing on the front page and I'm glad to answer questions/offer guidance via email. I'd really like this to turn into a complete database of the Ring side of my family.

I've already reserved a space for christensenfamily.wikispaces.org for the other side of my family, but I'm not putting any effort into it yet. Of course, if someone else wanted to start working on it, they would be free to do so! That's the great thing about Wikis.

Work has gone from bad to worse in terms of it sucking up all my available time. Being the "build guy" on this project means that I have to be present alot.

Thomas got a new bike on Saturday. His knees have been close to hitting the handlebars on his old bike for awhile and I have wanted to get him a gear bike (as he calls it) for some time. You can click on the picture on the left for more details. The one in the picture is the color he chose. It has 21 speeds, adjustable handlebars, adjustable seat and adjustable cranks. I'm looking forward to taking Thomas on some long rides.

Work has continued to be very, very busy. We're very near our shipping date and are scrambling to make our deadlines. Yesterday I was at the office for 24 hours straight. Hopefully, there won't be much more of that in the future.

Tina has been having stomach problems for quite some time. About a month ago she went to her doctor who told her that she had gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD, which is essentially perpetual heartburn. The prognosis was Prilosec and a change in diet that emphasized protein and de-emphasized carbohydrates.

Within a week, Tina realized that neither was helping and it seemed like her stomach hurt more than it ever had. It seemed like everything she ate made her sick, even though she was mostly eating meat and protein rich foods. After three weeks of this she made an appointment with her doctor and a specialist for June 8, this past Wednesday.

At the doctor's, they found that she had become anemic. He scheduled her for an ultrasound the next day, suspecting that she might have gall stones. On Thursday, she had the ultrasound but, since it was done at a different facility, would not find out the results until her doctor saw them. That night proved to be one of her worst since her stomach pain kept her awake most of the night.

Friday morning she called the doctor to find out what the ultrasound showed. The doctor said that she should really come to the office to meet with the specialist. When she did, they told her that she needed surgery to remove her gall bladder, and since she was in acute pain, they would schedule her for late that afternoon. She called me at work with that news and I rushed home on my bike so I could drop her off at the hospital and then pick up Thomas after school.

As we drove to the hospital, Tina asked me if I was OK because I was quiet and intent. In my mind, I was queueing up a list of things I had to do:

1. Drop Tina off to be admitted
2. Go back home to get amusement packs ready for the boys
3. Pick up Thomas at the bus stop
4. Get something for the boys to eat
5. Take the boys to the hospital to visit Tina until surgery

And that is essentially what we did until 5:00 pm that evening, which is when they brought Tina up to pre-op. We hauled her bags up to her post-op room and headed off to dinner. The boys wanted to see the cafeteria so we went there first. Unfortunately, all they serve is vegetarian food. That night's special was walnut loaf. Blah! We decided that we would go to Burger King, instead.

While we were there, I made a call to Uncle Buddy and sent a text message to Tina's dad, Leroy. Buddy agreed to meet us at the hospital and wait with us in the surgical waiting room. We checked her room when we arrived but she wasn't there so we went to the waiting room. On the way, I asked a nurse how we could find out where her surgery was at. The nurse said the doctor would come to the waiting room to tell us when it was done. We settled in and soon Buddy joined us.

By 8:00 PM, it had been 3 hours since she had gone into pre-op and I was getting a little nervous. I left the boys with Buddy and checked her room to see if she had sneaked by. She had not. Again, I stopped a nearby nurse and asked how to find out progress on Tina's surgery. She pointed me to a phone by the elevator that was marked "Recovery." I picked it up and asked the Recovery nurse if Tina was there. She was!

While I asked the nurse stupid questions like, "Can I see her?", a doctor walked up to me and asked, "Are you Mr. Laurren-Ring?" I answered, "Yes!" He said that the surgery had been successful and that she had many small gall stones. She would be in recovery another hour and then she would be wheeled into her room.

We waited just long enough to see her back from the surgery and stay to visit with her awhile, but it was very late for the boys and she was in and out of consciousness anyway, so we headed home. We returned the next morning to see her and she went home with us that afternoon. She is recovering at home - relieved but sore.

You can expect to see her account of the ordeal on her website soon. I'm sure she'll also appreciate any and all well wishers. See Contact Info.

Sometime not so long ago I found myself really enjoying listening to The Smiths' "The Queen Is Dead". Shortly after, I was grooving to The Replacements when I came to the sudden realization that there was a strong possibility I had become old and nostalgic. Alarmed, I quickly put on Beck's Guerro and reassured myself I was not old.

This week we saw this amazing little girl on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Her paintings are incredible and it is equally incredible to hear her explain them. You can see some of her work here.

At the beginning of May, my mom and oldest sister, Mardy, came to Portland for a visit. We didn't stay in Portland for long, though, as we headed north to Victoria, British Columbia. As you may remember, Tina, the boys and I visited Victoria back in 2002. We thought my mother would enjoy it so we planned to go back some time when she was visiting.

This was the first time my sister had ever left the United States and the second time my mother had. The first time for my mother was when I took her to Tijuana back in 1989. We all had a great time for the long weekend that we spent there. Some of the highlights included:

• Buchart Gardens on Mother's Day: This was the main reason we wanted to take my mother to Victoria.
• Royal BC Museum including IMAX movie "Everest"
• Victoria Wax Museum
• Downtown Shopping
• Harbour Boat Tour
• Double Decker Bus Tour of Victoria

Tina made all the arrangements and reservations so things went ultrasmoothly. Surprisingly, it was much easier to get into the U.S. than into Canada. It seemed to mostly be on the honor system!

Mardy left the day after we got back from Victoria and my mom a few days after that. It turned out to be pretty good timing because work got very busy right after that. A couple of weeks ago I worked almost 80 hours. In order to maximize work time, I stopped riding my bike to work, which I really, really missed. Thankfully, it has slowed down since then and we get an extra day off for this holiday weekend.

As a reward for all our hard work, our project manager and boss took us to an afternoon baseball game last Wednesday. In the third inning, a co-worker handed me his cell phone and said, "It's Venessa." Venessa is our administrative assistant. She told me, "Your wife called and wants you to call her back. She's in an ambulance with Thomas."

I called Tina on our cell phone and she told me that Thomas was OK but his head was bleeding. He had been hit in the head with a rock at school. They were on the way to the emergency room to get stitches. She asked if I could get the van and meet them at the hospital. I said I would, hung up and headed back to the office. Unfortunately, we had walked to the ballpark, so I had a 15 minute walk back to the office. While I walked, I realized that I really didn't know where the van was. When I got to the office, I attempted to call Tina, but only got voice mail. I assumed that meant that she was already at the hospital (where you have to turn off cell phones). Not sure what to do, I called the hospital next and asked for the ER. The man in the ER said they had not arrived yet.

Unluckily, I had chosen this to be the first day back on my bike, so I was facing a one hour bike ride to get to the van and then a half hour to the hospital. That's why it was important to know where the van was! Finally, I thought to call Thomas' school to see if the van was in their parking lot. They gave me the lowdown on what had happened and confirmed the van was in the parking lot. Finally, before I left, I called the ER one more time. Tina had arrived by this time and I spoke with her briefly. She was willing to wait for my arrival and seemed calm. Later I found out that she was far from it.

So I hopped on my bike and rode to the Max. Luckily, I was able to catch the Blue Line which takes me closer to Thomas' school. When I got to the school, I stashed my bike into the back of the van and made a bee line to the hospital. When I arrived at the ER, I went to the desk to have them check for the location of my family. Just as they were saying, "Can you spell that?" I heard Graham's voice behind me. I turned around and the three ambulance riders were walking down the hall towards me. They were all happy to see me. We all loaded into the van and headed home.

Thomas ended up with three staples on the right side of the back of his head. The incident occurred during recess when Thomas and some other boys were engaged in a pine cone throwing battle. One of the boys picked up a fist-sized rock and threw it at Thomas. He missed and so he picked it up and threw it again. He connected on the second try and Thomas went down. One of the other boys went off to get help, screaming, "He's bleeding! He's bleeding!"

Eventually, the school nurse came and called the ambulance and Tina. Tina arrived shortly after the ambulance and found Thomas lying in a significant pool of blood. The paramedics thought that she was rattled enough that she shouldn't drive, hence the reason she left the van at the school.

That night we received numerous phone calls from concerned parents. Many of the children were very upset and concerned for Thomas. Some even thought that he had died! He returned to school the next morning as a conquering hero! Here are pictures of the staples (not for the squeamish). You can read Tina's account on her website.

Working in downtown Portland means that I am occasionally treated to celebrity sightings. I have seen Krist Novaselic, Benitio Del Torro, Rasheed Wallace, Josh Childress, Danny Ainge, Del Harris, Bo Outlaw and many other basketball players. On some occasions I have had opportunity to actually say something to the celebrity, but I suddenly find my mind a blank and no words come forth. Afterwards, I find myself thinking of all kinds of things to say and/or ask the celebrity.

This week the same thing happened to me. This time I saw Steve Kerr, ex-Chicago Bull and now an announcer for the NBA on TNT, crossing the street as I rode my bike to work. I passed close by but didn't say anything to him because I couldn't think of anything to say. For the next half hour, I thought of all the questions I would have liked to ask him. Just like so many times before.

At lunch, I walked down to the parking lot known locally as "The Pod" where a bunch of food carts are gathered together to provide the maximum variety of cuisine for the minimum amount of money. As I walked back with my pulled pork sandwich, who should I see coming towards me on the sidewalk with a cell phone to his ear? That's right, Steve Kerr! Not wanting to be rude, I was just going to walk by until I saw him move the phone from his ear. I jumped at my chance with, "Steve, do you have time for a question?" He answered, "Sure!" and we talked for the next five minutes about why the Chicago Bulls let BJ Armstrong be taken in the 1995 Expansion Draft. It was very informative and he was very, very nice. What a great opportunity!

Last week was marked by a high degree of energy and time invested at work. We had a milestone that we absolutely had to meet so I worked both weekend days and 12 hour days on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I took Thursday off to see Tina and the boys. It was a really nice day. We topped it off by attending Thomas' musical program for the third grade. Thomas had several roles in the production, but the most memorable was as the lone dancing tree as all the children sang around him. At least three kids said, "Hey, tree-boy!", as we left the school.

I finally got some time to start and finish our taxes today. This is as close to the wire I've been for several years.

I finally got to meet in person my friend, Su Nguyen, whom I met back in 2003. He's been in Portland for several months working with ProDX, the company whom I contracted with while layed off from Critical Path. He has no transportation while he's here so I picked up he and his friend, Ha, from their host's house Saturday afternoon. After introducing him to the family, he presented us all with gifts. We took him to Hooters as a lark and then came back to our house for a couple of hours of poker. He and Ha really enjoyed themselves, I think. The highlight of the evening was when we stopped at the Wendy's drive thru for Frosties. When I ordered, they had a perplexed look on their face. When I paid, they started to talk. When I picked up the Frosties, they went crazy! They had never been to a drive thru before and had never even imagined such a thing. They totally loved it!

If you have been wondering, my truck is once again in running order. As you may recall, one of the coolant hoses burst back in August causing it to overheat and blow a gasket. Because I use it so little, it sat in the driveway for months before I got around to doing anything about it. In December, my friend, Don Fitzgerald, helped me tow it out to Aloha to my mechanic's house. My mechanic, John, discovered that, in addition to the blown head gasket, I also had a cracked head. This made the repair quite a bit more expensive but I told him to go ahead with it anyway. He was kind enough to deliver the truck to my home shortly before Christmas in good running order.

Right before the overheating incident, I had loaded up the back of the truck with yard debris. As you might imagine, four months later it had settled and begun to compost. Thus, my first task was to unload the compost at my favorite yard debris dump in Vancouver. Graham came along for the ride and the trip went without incident. On the way home, I filled up with gas. This is when the trouble began anew.

Within a week I was having problems again. On the way home from work one night, I completely lost power on the freeway and had to make a beeline for the nearest exit. I limped home on side streets since the truck was acting funny when trying to accelerate and especially at shift points. The next time it happened at very nearly the same place on the freeway coming home from work but this time I was unable to get to an exit and had to pull over on the shoulder. The truck shuddered to a halt and refused to restart. Further complicating the issue was the fact that my battery chose to die at this particular moment. I walked about two miles until I found a phone to call Tina, who picked me up shortly after and gave me a ride to the truck. We jump started it and returned home on surface streets having to jump it again shortly before we got home.

And so the truck sat in the driveway again until last month while Tina and the boys were in Colorado and New Mexico for a week. I replaced the battery and then drove it out to John's house in Aloha one weekend day. It took me several hours since I could only drive about five miles before it would die for awhile before it could be restarted. The problem turned out to be a clogged fuel filter. Gas stations in Oregon sell different gas in the winter that contains alcohol, which is a very effective cleaner for your fuel system. This, combined with sitting idle for several months, caused all the debris in the system to clog the fuel filter. I got the truck back a few weeks ago and its been running like a champ ever since.

My mom and my sister, Mardy, will be visiting us at the beginning of next month. We're planning on taking them to Victoria, BC, for an extended weekend. I think my mother has been out of the country only ounce before and that was when I took her to Mexico. We'll likely revisit many of the sights that we saw during our 2002 family vacation.

I've added a few links to my link page:

• Wikipedia: An encyclopedia that you can edit!
• Urban Dictionary: Flumoxed by the lingo the youngsters use these days? Urban Dictionary is the resource for you! Find definitions for "hot Karl", "UFIA" and "shocker" (some may be offensive).
• Fark: As the site I visit most frequently, Fark is the ultimate source for quirky stories on the Internet. Headlines are submitted by the users in a competition to put the funniest spin on any given story. Each story also has a discussion thread, many of which are absolutely hilarious. Also, don't miss the daily Photoshop contests.
• BlogMaverick: Mark Cuban is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks and a self-made millionaire from the dot-com era. Although I don't agree with everything he says, many of his opinions are insightful and well-considered. Subject matter is wide-ranging but seems to overlap my areas of interest almost completely.
• PVRBlog: Musings and news items about personal video recorders.

Sorry for the lack of updates in recent months. I have excuses ranging from the flu to back problems to just plain lazy. But what are you complaining about? Here's an update right here!