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Intro 1998 1999 2000 2001

Another few weeks, another delayed update... This time the only excuse I have is sheer relaxation. I've relaxed by playing all sorts of games. Lords of the Realm has received a good thrapping, and I've also played some Civilization II, Battleground: Ardennes, Red Baron and R.E. Lee (Civil War General). I've also been catching up with all the board games I play and GM for. Brilliant!

And so we reach the 1 year mark, and have lived to tell the tale! It barely seems so long ago that we boarded the plane at Glasgow to come here. Halloween marked our anniversary in the US, and last Tuesday my 1 year at CPI. I'll have to do a special page to look over the past year.

To mark the event we all went out for a meal to Chevy's, a Tex-Mex diner. It turned out to be a bad move, as I'd just finished playing soccer, and things did not sit well. Anyway, we did have a good time there, and we'll go back again. The kids were well behaved, and had a hoot as well.

The big news is something I've been itching to tell for the past few months, but had to keep under wraps. Earlier this year Oracle and I reached agreement on me leaving Computer People and joining them. All we had to do was get an official offer and sort out a new H1B visa. The official offer took a month, during which time CPI gave me a pay rise. Oracle then decided to up their offer, which took another few weeks. During this time we realized that my degree certificate had gone absent, and a replacement had to be got. Then the whole caboodle had to go off to the attorney's office to be wrapped up to send to the Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS).

These guys then sat on it for a few weeks before questioning whether I had sufficient experience for the job. It seems ludicrous given that they approved me last year and it's esentially the same job. Anyway, I've got some more supporting documents (letters from Oracle and the City of Salem Data Center) saying what a wonderful person I am, etc. The attornies are also getting some dude from New York to evaluate my degree, experience and such, and equate it in terms of a computing degree. Hopefully it should all work out well enough.

The reason I wanted to keep it quiet was that there is a term in my contract that says if CPI and I part company before 12 months is up, then we have to pay back all the costs of shipping us out here. I reckon it's about $12k all in, a tidy sum which I would rather keep in our pockets. Note that it doesn't say anything about me quitting, so I wasn't taking the chance that they would terminate my contract with a few days to go and then claim back the dosh. I don't think that anyone in the Portland office would do such a thing (well, Rand, the manager, might), but it would just need a corporate suit to do the sums and work out they'd make more getting rid of me than keeping me.

As it turns out the whole move is to be delayed anyway, as the project I'm working on want to keep me around until the midle of February. Now, another clause in my contract (don't you just love contracts?) says that I can't work for any CPI client I've been at for a period of 12 months after leaving CPI. That means that if I left CPI, I couldn't stay on the project. This would not make Oracle look good in the eyes of the client, so we all agreed that the best thing all round (well, except from CPI's point ;) ) would be if I made the move after my involvement with the project was finished. However, in the past few weeks my end date has been getting later and later... Oracle are being fair about it though - there should be a 6 month waiting period before they commit to applying for a Green Card on my behalf, but they are going to measure that from when I should have started (i.e. once all the paperwork is in place), rather than my actual start date.

Most people in CPI don't know about this yet, 3 people know so far, but now it isn't so important that they find out. Heck, they could still terminate me, but now all they'd do is antagonize the client, and they're enough in the bad books as it is that I can't see them doing that - they should want to get as much out of me as they can now that I'm going to be going.

Which brings me onto the Oracle class. Now that the dust has settled, the feedback sheets have come in, and I'm pleasently surprised by them. Only 3 people out of the 20 or so that started bothered to complete them, but there was no score below 3 out of 5, and quite a few 5s. Most of the comments were about not being able to get hands on experience or the provision of home assignments. Understandable, but there is really little that could be done. We couldn't use PCs with Oracle installed, at $6,500 per PC the cost would be prohibitive, and without access to a PC with the software it's really hard to do any assignments. CPI did splash out for a couple of books that come with demo versions of the Oracle system, but they were a bit too little and too late (they appeared in the third week). Anyway, the main point is that I learned a bit more about preparing and presenting a class, which was my main goal. I can now, truthfully, put Oracle training in my resume. Could be useful in the future.

On the family front, Cath and the kids finally went to the dentist. I've been trying to persuade her to get sorted since May, when I first started going. I had a slight pain back when the boys were playing indoor soccer, and, as luck would have it, one of the other moms was a dentist. So, she made room for me in her schedule and took me in. Nothing serious, as it turned out, but it led to quite a few more visits to tidy up, fix old fillings, etc. The only problem was that it was downtown Portland, and Cathy hates driving anywhere that involves built up areas. For the rest of the school year it was 'I'll wait untill the holidays', and then it was 'Oh, there's too many things on'. Next it's back to school again. Anyway, she's finally sorted to see a local dentist. Graham's the worst, needing quite a few fillings. Catriona was mostly ok, Colin's the one who was recommended for serious work, needing bridges and even braces were suggested to straighten some teeth that are a bit squint. Cathy also has to have a filling and a crown and more crowns were suggested. That'll teach her to wait so long - it's been well over a year since the last visit to Tasker in Fraserburgh. They certainly take teeth seriously over here! Whilst I'm sure Tasker is a good dentist, things here are totally different.

Still on the subject of teeth, Graham's first tooth came out this last week. Well, it didn't so much come out as he pulled it out. Of course we told him to put it under his pillow for the tooth fairy. The first problem was that we'd forgotten to tell the tooth fairy administrator of our move, and so the British tooth fairy was a bit lost as to what the going rate was in Oregon. The second problem was that she had a devil of a time finding the blessed thing. It wasn't under his pillow, it wasn't on the floor nearby, and he didn't have it in his hand. Eventually Cathy went in and had a look, at which point Graham woke a bit and said that he'd given it to Colin for safe keeping! (Now, whether Colin had persuaded him in the hope of keeping the loot to himself is another matter...) This still didn't settle it, as it wasn't under Colin's pillow either. So the tooth fairy had to give up and come back the next night. Where was it, in the end? In between Cathy and Graham's conversation and the tooth fairy looking under Colin's pillow, Colin had got up and put it back under Graham's pillow! He's a fairly lite sleeper and had woke up enough to overhear the discussion. Oh, well, all's well that ends well. Graham got his loot the next night, and bought some Lego with it this weekend.

Since the last Thoughts Halloween has come and gone. It was an amusing day, pretty reminiscent of Guy Fawkes in years gone past. The kids just dress up in costume (it needn't be scary style) and just go round the houses with a bucket or bag and get given candy. Good deal! In the early part of the evening they went round with the Keating kids (Ryan and Danny) in their neighborhood, and then came back here and went out with the Boston kids (Ryan and Matt). It stayed mostly dry, coming on rain later on. They enjoyed it, and we'll have more stuff to decorate the place for next year. At one house there was a stuffed dummy lying next to the door, all old clothes and hay sticking out. So Colin gives it a nudge in a private place only to find it was some guy dressed up to give them a scare! He'll know to wear a box next time...

The past couple of weeks saw the soccer all finished. Graham's team continued to pound the other teams, scoring goal after goal. Colin's Rec team managed a draw in their final game, which was fairly good for them. My own team managed a draw in our last game as well. I even played the second half in goal, and have the bruises to prove it. I went down on the ball and the attacker managed to stand on my leg, totally missing the shin guard. A week later and it's gone some interesting colors...

To keep the soccer going I've been speaking to a sports company about indoor soccer, so I may get together some players to play and also try to sort out an under 11 team to let Colin and others play. Unfortunately they don't do anything for Graham's age group. It will keep them going until the LO indoor soccer starts.

Both Catriona and Colin have been off to birthday parties this weekend, Catriona at a pool party, Colin off to LazerPort. They both seem to have had a good time. We'll have to see about having parties for them next year.

We had a bit of a do with Cathy's car this week. There's a big, heavy workbench in the garage, which is normally folded up against the wall. Early this week the keeper must have slipped (although I'm sure it looked fine the day before) and the work bench came down onto the car. There was some denting on the 'A' pillar, and damage to the paint and surrounds. About $1000 in total. That's what car insurance is for...

I finally went and bought a replacement pair of boots for work - to wear with my suit. My old Wranglers were well done, with the soles split, the heels worn through, and just beginning to get a bit uncomfortable. A trip to Sears found a really neat pair of Cats - big, clompy and with steel toe- caps. Just what you need in the office environment. (Hey, consultants are supposd to wear suits, but they don't say anything about what you've to wear on your feet!) However, I'd also fancied a pair of cowboy boots, and they won the day. So I'm now gadding about in a neat pair of black cowboy boots. They're getting pretty comfy, and are hardly off my feet. Real El Paso, Texas, things they are too. Almost went for the hat as well...

Graham also has a new pair of boots for day wear. Tan ankle boots from StrideRite were what he chose. He had wanted replacement trainers, but we persuaded him to go for normal footwear on the promise of some Sambas for the new indoor soccer season starting.

Cathy got a letter this week from the people who now have Baz, our Irish Wolfhound. They included several photos, as well, which was nice of them. She is doing well, and has learned to trust them. Seems she's in a good home. We also were back in the pet shop again today, as we were in Beaverton Mall. A Basset was marked down and there was a nice Lab mix there. Tempting, very tempting...

One of the books that Cathy has out of the library at the moment is about choosing the right dog. It asks various questions about your personality and preferences, and then suggests possible breeds that would suit. It suggested Weimariners, Vizlas and Akitas for Cathy, and Labs, Retrievers and Spaniels and such for me. Beagles and wolfhounds of any kind never appeared on either of our lists. Looking though other books we still can't agree on what to get. Perhaps it's just as well that we're not allowed animals in the rental house...

Well, that's enough for this week. I'll catch you all next week.