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Yipes! The past few weeks have been horrendous! Little did I know when I agreed to put on an Oracle class that it would turn out like this. But let's start at the start... [wobble screen to show flashback]

Way back earlier this year I put on a small presentation for an hour or so about Oracle for my employers, Computer People, Inc. This went down so well and there was so much interest in Oracle that we agreed to put on an Oracle class. This was planned to run over several weeks, and to follow on from a class in systems analysis and design. The aim was to take the design produced from that class and build it using Oracle as a way of teaching the class. [wobble screen to nearer future]

The scene is the Crowne Plaza hotel, Lake Oswego, middle September. CPI breakfast to discuss classes for the fall. Present are CPI technical manager, Jim Lawrence, technical support assistant, June Bremmer, and consultants Jim Coffey and myself. June advises Jim (who's going to do an Access class) and myself that the person who was supposed to be doing the systems design class has pulled out. This is, of itself, not a disaster. She then goes on to declare that she wants to pull forward the classes such that mine starts in a week. Like a fool I say "no problem" and agree to the schedule. Now, not only do I have to prepare a class in 1 week, I also have to get an idea for a sample project to use as an example. I've gone from having a finished product to build on, to having to come up with something myself. [wobble back to current time]

So, here we are, with 4 weeks down, 2 to go, and it hasn't been a total disaster. I've only 1 more class to prepare as I'm leaving the last evening to the whim of the class. I now have some life back again. The class even seems to be going over well, and numbers are staying up around 18. I've learned a fair bit from the class and it's something I've always wanted to try. I've never got up and presented a class before, so it was a new experience for me. I've done some public speaking through my involvement with NSA, and even hosted a presentation, so it wasn't my first attempt at public speaking. (This was one of the reasons I enjoyed NSA so much - it expanded me in directions that I'd never gone before - I had to speak to people I'd never met before, speak in front of groups, and even did a short, 30 sec, brief on my NSA experience in front of about 200 people. Thorough NSA I was exposed to some of the personal development tools such as Stephen Covey's 7 Habits, Anthony Robbins and, my favorite, Zig Ziglar. Most people in the UK just trash these sort of things, indeed, just as I did. But when I started listening to them I realized that there was something in it, and I really did feel more comfortable with my life and felt a better person. "Tosh!" I hear you cry, and a few years back I would have agreed with you. However, I challenge you to pick up Zig Ziglar's tape on goals (and it's not about soccer!) and not get something out of it to improve you or your life. If nothing else you'll get a good laugh. A lot of these things are just common sense, but it's amazing how often we don't apply the basic common sense attitudes that could improve this world no end. Err, sermon over... :) )

What else has been happening around here in the past few weeks?

Soccer is still going on. Graham's team are proving to be quite strong and cuffing almost all the other teams. Although they don't keep official score at his age the kids know exactly what's going on. Graham has scored quite a few, and done some good work defensively. He's far more aware of position than the others, but he needs to work on passing. He's still enjoying it, though, and that's the main point.

Colin's also having a good time. His Rec team, which is quite weak, actually won a game the other week, 4-0, with Colin scoring 3. At that level he's a fair bit better than most in his team, and it's helped his confidence. He could even have had more, as he pushed 1 inches past the post and hit the post with another. The Rec+ has been harder, as he's playing against teams at a better level. After their first 2 wins, both 1- 0, they then lost the next 2 by 6 or 7, then narrowly lost 2-1 to the other Lake Oswego team. They won their final game 3-1, for a 3-3 record. Not bad as it wasn't the strongest team in the world. After our final game (this past Sunday, 18th) I was presented with a card and light jacket (in bright yellow - fabby!) by the players. A good bunch of kids. The only downer in the whole thing was one kid whose parents put him in another team, only telling me after they'd done it. He was one of the better players and they felt he wasn't learning anything. Now, if they'd come and discussed it I would have agreed and had no issue. No, they had to sneak off and do it behind my back. People like that really pis me off - no honor, loyalty, whatever. It also didn't help that the Lake Oswego Soccer Club managed not to mail me information about tournaments, so we never entered any. I'll know next year when they are and can chase, but when you don't know and no- one says anything... A few parents afterwards commented that they had wondered why we didn't enter any tournaments, but none thought to actually ask me about them. Oh, well.

My team has had mixed fortunes. After losing the 1st game 4-0 to a team from the open league (we're in the over-35s), we won the next 5-1, myself scoring 1, then proceeded to lose the next 2 games 1-0. In the last one (18th) I even managed to have a good chance, turning sharply onto a loose ball about 6 yards out and giving it all I had with my left foot, only to see the goalkeeper stick out a hand and deflect it onto the post. On a normal day it might still have had enough momentum to crawl over the line, but after all the rain recently it just plopped into the mud and stuck there. The goalkeeper was closest and he just flopped on the ball. A terrific reaction save, curse his eyes! We also managed to miss one game due to a mix up in the schedules. A first schedule had been issued by the Parks and Recreation department (who organize the soccer schedules here), which showed the arranged games and which teams had byes each week, as there were 7 teams in the group. They planned to arrange games against one of the open teams for each team with a bye each week. This they did and then issued a second schedule showing the revised bye games. Our co- ordinator just manually wrote int he changes and mailed it to the players. What he didn't know, and the P&R didn't tell him, was that one of our other games had also been rescheduled, so we all turned up at 7pm to find that our allotted time had come and gone. Rats!

Cathy has also been very busy these past weeks. She's was roped into co- ordinating the Sally Foster fund raising for the school. This is a catalogue that offers wrapping paper and such goodies in time for Christmas, the school making 50% on all sales. So for the past week she's been chasing returns, checking, filing etc. It went pretty well, orders for over $17k were received, so the school/PTO make about $9k. Not bad.

A week Saturday sees the first anniversary of our arrival in the US. This past year has just flown by so fast. Sorry to all in Scotland, but it has been just great and we are even more fixed in our plans not to go back on a permanent basis. I'll do a special first anniversary entry in the Moving section of our web-site with a wrap up of our first year. I'd like to do something special to mark the event, but Cathy isn't too concerned, and anyway it occurs at Halloween, which is fairly big here. We were in Beaverton mall the other week and came across a shop devoted totally to Halloween equipment. Costumes, wigs, scary stuff and all sorts of things. We bought a special mat for the door that gives out scary noises when you step on it and a ghosty thing that hangs from the roof and shakes and goes 'whooo' when it is activated by a loudish noise. Both should do nicely for outside the door for next week.

Work goes on well. The project is getting to the stage where fingers are starting to point, trying to place blame. Not unusual in this stage, especially when things aren't going too well. Still, I'm enjoying it, and I've been extended there until mid February next year. That will mark over 1 year on continuous billing for CPI without any bench time. I reckon they're making about $65k from me each year, so given that it must have cost a fair penny to get me out here they've still had a very fair return on their investment.

Here in Oregon Fall has certainly arrrived. We've had some serious rain over the past few weeks and it is a good deal colder. Having said that we've had a few days of improved weather with the temperatures getting back up to around the mid 70s (f). When we arrived a year ago, the first week in November was very warm and totally unseasonal. Even so, it was only around the mid 70s, but it felt very warm. Now the same temperatures feel positive cool after the summer highs of over 100 (f). I don't know what it's going to be like come the real winter...

We're currently in the middle of campaigning season, which means that we have all sorts of politicians popping out of radio and tv with their little messages saying how wonderful they are, and how their opponent is the spawn of the devil. At least we've got the defense that we can't vote whenever we're accosted by canvassers.

A couple of weeks back I took a day off work to attend the parent-teacher conferences for each of the kids. They're mostly doing well, although Colin has had trouble doing his work in time. It's not that he can't do it, he just doesn't do it. Still, he's been better since then, and actually got a credit for getting all his work in on time this last 3 weeks. Graham's reading is coming on slowly, but solidly, and Catriona is reading everything that will sit still long enough. Colin has been entered for the TAG (Talented and Gifted) program here. Apparently the TAG co-ordinator took one look at his work from Scotland and entered him in the program. All the teachers commented that they appear to be well balanced kids and a joy to work with.

One thing I have noticed with Graham is that he's definitely losing his Scottish accent. Perhaps it's just the words he's using, but he's beginning to sound more American. Only to be expected, really, and if I can notice it then it must be fairly pronounced.

The other week I bought Lords of the Realm II Siege Pack. This is a fabby extension to an already fabby game. Both the boys play it (although Graham just likes the battles) as it's a good mix of strategy and fighting. Very addictive. I've also recently bought a pinball game and Red Baron. Both were only $10 and well worth it. Must get some more...

Going on at the moment is the World Series baseball thing. This is one big yawn to me. It's great to be able to see some football, though. Over the Saturday we've got college football, and it's posible to watch about 4 games during the day, more if you keep switching between the games on at the same time. Sunday sees the NFL games, and there's normally 2 games on. There's also Monday football as well. Football heaven.

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