Terror, treats, babies and floating bikes...

While there have been terrorism alerts and wars going on in the Middle East, life in the City of Peace is a calm and tranquil. That is, it is calm and tranquil if you consider GIANT FIRES and BOMBS ALL OVER TOWN calm and peaceful. Watch out, Christian Amanpour, you may get shipped to Salem, Oregon next!

So here is a brief recap of the week's events. One week ago saturday, we decided to do some projects around the house.

The first item of business was to have a really tasty breakfast. Note-Oregon is chock-full of really tasty treats that you can have for breakfast. I think that the state motto ought to be, "Oregon - we have tasty breakfast goodies". However, cooler heads in the State Capitol building thought that "The Beaver State" would scare off more Californians, thus helping us preserve our forest lifestyle without the high real estate prices. The sad thing is, few Californians are scared of beavers. They, after all, have a large bear as their state animal, so a paltry mamby-pamby little beaver doesn't do anything for them. Maybe if we were "Oregon-the state of Dengue Fever" or "Oregon-we have ferocious Lions!" state, real estate prices would stay low. But for pure accuracy, it ought to be the "tasty-treat" state. (see below)

Please also note the size of the blackberries. They are about as big as golf balls. That is another reason that I nominate Oregon for state of the year. But I digress....

We had decided that we needed bicycles racks several weeks earlier. While at work, I noticed in the newspaper that there was a sale on pulley bicycle systems that lift your bicycle to the ceiling. As a registered Eagle scout, and boy who loved the pulley system on the erector set, I realized that this was my dream come true. So off we went to our local Lowe's home improvement store in Salem. In order to do projects, it turns out that you are required to leave an offering to the gods of home improvement at their temple called "Lowe's" (see below).


We purchased the bicycle racks (at a greatly reduced cost), and began to install them. We got to use a stud finder (your favorite joke can go here), and a power drill, and a step stool, an awl, and various and sundry bolts because I kept stripping them. It took most of the morning, but, at the end, it is almost like our bicycles float in the air. Also, it increased the amount of space that we had in the garage, which made us dance a little jig (though you still have to duck your head under the bicycles.


I had my first call on Tuesday. It was a pretty crazy night. For some reason I did one appendectomy after another. I was going to make a joke here about a sunflower seed convention in Salem but Alicia let me know that most people wouldn't get the joke about appendectomies and sunflower seeds. Too bad, because it was a really good joke. I finally came home at about 1:00am, and then had to be back for my cases at 6:00am. Moreover, even though I requested to have an early day on Wednesday, instead I had an operating room that went until 6:00pm. I was really tired when I came home.

Thursday, when the rest of the world was reeling from news of a suspected terror plot, I felt like I had finally caught up on my sleep. I went to work, and about 1/2 way through the morning, we got word that a big furniture store that, interestingly, was closing down, caught on fire. It was a big giant fire that was all downtown, though the fireman contained it to one building. They had to call in 5 different fire departments, however, because it turns out that microfiber couches burn like nothing else.


About one hour after the news of the fire, I finished my cases. As I started to leave the operating room, I kept hearing about "bomb threat". I stopped to ask a nurse what was going on, and she informed me that a pipe bomb had been found at the local grocery store, and then at Salem Hospital in the parking structure, and that the parking structure was on lockdown, the hospital was on disaster bypass, and all elective surgeries were cancelled. Luckily for me, the security guy had told me the day before that I wasn't allowed to park in the parking terrace (which was really far away), but that I had to park in the medical staff parking lot (which is next to the entrance), so for the first time since I came to Salem, I hadn't parked there, so I moved my car and went home. Three of the major thouroughfares in Salem were closed for awhile, but everything was hunky-dory in our little cottage.

Two other bombs were found in the greater Salem area, but it is not yet clear who left them. Since then, no further bombs have been found, but it was a bit scary. Alicia read in the newspaper today that the only connection between the people who had pipe bombs under their cars is that they are carbon-based and live in South Salem. One of our friends, who is a clerk for an appellate judge, thinks that all we have do is wait until the kids get back to school, and someone will start bragging.

Our house is really starting to feel like home. My office is pretty much done (except for the decorating, Alicia says) Here is picture.


Also, our garage is starting to feel like a garage with a dad in charge of it. I guess that won't happen until January 27th, but at least it is starting to look the part, with floating bicycles, and tools on a tool board. The blinds are up, the curtains are in place, and we are anxious to have some visitors. First houseguest gets a big bowl of blackberries!



Also, here is the update on Raisin-watch 2006:



Starting Friday Alicia FELT THE BABY!! WHOO-HOO! Here is a picture of Alicia feeling Raisin. Raisin is the one in the uterus.
Nausea has returned with a vengance, but my wife is super sweet (She is the one laying down, unless Raisin is laying down too, then Alicia is the bigger one).