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Here we are again. A 2 week report this time, as things have been busy with one thing and another. Soccer continues to take up a lot of time. As no-one has come forward to organize the Rec program for Lake Oswego this year I've volunteered to pick it up.

The prez (Hi, Nick!) has been keen for me to take on one of the open positions, so it was either Rec co-ordinator or uniform co-ordinator. The Rec job is easier to do if away from home, so it seemed the obvious choice. I'll still help out with uniforms when I can, but the co-ordinator for that has to liaise with suppliers, etc., which seemed a bit much for a first time participant.

So, what's involved? Pretty much it's just taking all the player applications, sorting them out into schools and building teams with assigned coaches. Then fielding all the questions from coaches/parents as to why their kid wasn't put onto this team or with that coach. Y'all know what parents are like... ;)

I'll also have to organize a meeting for all the coaches to dish out the information packets, liaise with the other soccer clubs in the area and with the Oregon Youth Soccer Association (OYSA). Should be a doddle.

This past week I went along to the Portland Youth Soccer Association referees' meeting to register with them for the spring soccer season. I'll get paid a handsome $10 per game, if I get paid at all, as this whole H1 visa thing may stop me taking money. Never mind, I'll do it for the fun of it, and to get some games under my belt. I'd like to get enough experience to be promoted to grade 7, although I have no real intention of doing serious reffing. i.e. don't look for me in the middle of a Celtic-Rangers game.

More good news this week. The papers have come in from the mortgage broker confirming that we've been pre-qualified for a mortgage. This would give us a budget of around $175k for a house. It sounds a lot, but in LO it don't get you much. The moderately nice houses start at around $250k and go on from there, so we're thinking of heading out to West Linn or Tigard where prices are a little more reasonable.

Then again, we had some sad news this week. Our very good friends, David and Mitzi Keating (in fact really our only good friends, the rest are really just acquaintences), have decided to head back to Chicago this summer. They say that there are far more job opportunities, cheaper housing, better schools, the whole nine yards, over there. We've seriously discussed it, and it is quite tempting. We're not sure what we'll do, so watch this space.

Work has been particularly depressing this week. I was due to finish this past Friday at my current assignment in Salem, terminate with Computer People and start with Oracle on Monday. Well, my manager at the client pulled me into his office last thing on Wednesday and asked if I'd be able to stay for another month! Apparently it had been discussed with CPi and my manager at Oracle, and they were both ok with it. It's important to recognize when you've been blind-sided, and that the best (indeed only) thing you can do is go with the flow and keep smiling. So, I've got another month down in Salem, just when I was all psyched up to join Oracle.

This was also depressing in that one of the other Oracle consultants at Salem, Ajay Chalana, has finished this week. I'll miss him, as I learned a good deal from him as well as having someone to go with to the India Palace restaurant for lunch. I'll see you on another project Ajay.

Speaking of CPi, I went along to their Quarterly Business Update meeting this week. The first person I bumped into was Rand Zoborowski, the branch manager. I was joking with him that I'd been extended at Salem, and so I was going to be around to collect my quarterly bonus. He asked why I'd extended and didn't just head to Oracle, and I explained that I'd promised not to move until the assignment was completed. When he got up to do his part of the evening the first thing he mentioned was my committment to the client and extending for a month, even though I had a job at Oracle to go to. Thanks, Rand, that was nice of you.

For the past few weeks I've been using Macromedia's DreamWeaver 2 to maintain the pages in my web-site. A pretty impressive piece of software, and I've barely scratched at the surface of its capabilities. The trouble is that the 30 day license has run out and I'm now lost without it. I think I'm going to have to stump up the $300 to buy a copy. This is especially required if I'm going to be maintaining not only my own web- site, but also that for LOSC. Hopefully I can persuade them to make a contribution to the cost. btw, I picked up on it from BaddGrrl's web-site (she's in Macromedia QA), so I hope you get some commission, Lorraine!

The kids had their report cards this past week. All still showing glowing reports, especially Colin who's tidied up his act considerably. Catriona's also coming along, but is still much of a toot. Graham's really doing well and has been selected for the TAG (Talented and Gifted) program for math (he had 100% in his test). The quote from his teacher is 'he's so darned cute!' He's quite the class character, although they all seem to have settled in nicely, and are slowly becoming more 'Americanized', right down to developing an 'attitude', Colin especially.

Cathy's just been followwing her routine. This last week was her 'busy' week, so it was a round of school, library, school and more library. Of course the kids had two days off last week for the conferences at school, so she had them to put up with as well.

This past week also saw Graham's seventh birthday come and go. This was his second birthday over here, doesn't time fly ? He also went along to two birthday parties this week. We should really sort out a birthday party for him, but we're still trying to save for this house.

Anyway, that's enough for this week.