Tried to soak up some of the white downtown today. It was a nice change to the normal grey.

Remember the guy in school who always has to stand up and point out the rule breakers......there he was today.
In spite of the roads....yes the Post Office and Honda Civic's marched on.
Chad this one's for you. A moment of silence for this abandoned commuter.
When this all starts melting we're in for a mess!

8.5" at 7:58pm tonight and still snowing! Glad to make it home from special meetings without incident today. Oh what I wouldn't give for a snowblower right now! I'd clear the street just for fun.

Tomorrow is operation "photograph downtown" on my lunch hour. Taking pictures of my driveway gets a little boring. And hopefully the plane bringing my sister can make it in!

The white stuff finally hits Seattle! The view from my desk at the moment.

Winter bird hunting in Oroville again lives up to the hype. We got a healthy dose of birds, cold, wind and snow all in one short winter day!

Mike and Derrick

Jeremy, Duke, Buck, Mike and Dave (left to right)
Derrick and Dave

Once again Mike delivered on finding the birds.....now if I could just figure out how to hit one moving! Next time.

Thanks again for the weekend!

And for sharing the newest and cutest entertainment in Oroville.

The big Okanogan sky

Sometimes working downtown has some unexpected perks. The Salvation Army celebrity bell ringing day yesterday was one. On the way to Jimmie Johns sandwich shop for lunch, a coworker Sean and I got our picture taken with these two. If you know the guys on the left and right maybe you'll get a prize! Hint, the two in the middle are not the celebrities. Maybe one more hint, they are a part of the Seattle sports scene.

I seem to be falling off the blogging bandwagon. Primarily because I don't have any exciting pictures or events to share. But I did have a nice family and friends Thanksgiving.

Okay, time for a more thoughtful and sensitive post.

I heard a statistic recently that the list of people needing a donor transplant is increasing rapidly. Makes sense to me as the population grows. However, the number of people who have registered as a donor on their license is about 35%. That seems low to me because I can't think of a good reason for a healthy person not to be a donor. Maybe people don't want to think about it because it involves death. But in essence it seems pretty simple, at the point your a donor, it won't matter to you anymore but will mean the world to someone else.

This hits closer to home as my coworker's wife waits for a lung transplant....and continues to wait. She's suffers from cystic fibrosis yet thanks to modern medicine has had a high quality of life into her 30's. If you are not registered as an organ donor, I'd like to encourage you to reconsider. The DOL can register you when you renew your drivers license.....but since that only happens every few years, they point to a website where you can register now. The link is: http://www.donatelife.net/


Along this line, I'm participating in a stairclimb event to raise money for the cystic fibrosis foundation. If you're inclined to support this cause, click here to get to my donation page: http://stairclimb.kintera.org/faf/r.asp?t=4&i=285455&u=285455-156568318&e=2029975711

The goal of course is raising money......but being a guy and all the competition part is also rewarding! We happen to be the defending champs for the last couple years and we hope to keep that up.

Thanks.

Come on folks....the moment of silence for the purple and gold did not work!!! Okay, maybe we just need better players, or a better playbook, or a new coach, or or or......maybe we just need to bring on those Cougars!!!
Another loss aside..........can your phone do this? Maybe it's time for a switch to Apple.

That's all I've got. Up next time, I'll see who else I can offend in a post.

Goodbye October. Bring on the rain!
A few images from 10/2008

We said Goodbye to Steve for awhile. Good luck!Hunting in Forks was actually marginally successful, I wasn't involved in any deer dressing.

An all too familar sight this fall....check the scoreboard. Please, a moment of silence for the purple and gold.

The polls are in, the people have spoken, and what can I say.........we will miss that wink.

The Leavenworth Half-Marathon

What a difference 1 week makes! Or not. 1:45:30. While not quite the PR I was hoping for, I guess consistency is worth something?!

It was fun to have such a big contingent at the starting line. I think all the participants are pictured except Trevan and Jill....who may have been off finding someone to hold Toriana for a couple of hours.

The rest of the day was spent checking out Bavaria.......Washington style.

Akron Roadrunner Half-Marathon

Incentive for running all summer finally arrived, a trip to Akron, Ohio for the Roadrunner Half-marathon.

1:45:38. The arms raised betrayed my last few slogging miles.

All clean, happy, well rested, more or less ignorant of what was in store. Our awesome hosts were Dwayne (Orange) and Ellen (red). Kids Will, Ben and Josie were still sleeping.

Ernie dressing in the driveway

A nice bonus to the running and Akron visit was seeing Cleveland

We pretty much fit right in.

Two of my underperforming fantasy football players call this home. I stopped by for a pep talk but they weren't in.

Experiencing the biggest roller coaster park in the world, Cedar Point, was also pretty exciting for this guy. I'd been to Disneyland as a kid but never to a place like this.
Now I'm hoping my legs have another one in them this weekend.

No posting lately could be attributed to some gas saving summer enjoyment.
Sun.......please stick around awhile this fall.

A little belated here....but a few pics from the Matthews Family Reunion.

Wallowa Lake, Oregon