Drachma the kitten on a bathrobe

Whilst I'm trying to find the time to continue my Panama tales, I should mention that we have a new little fellow in the Little House:

This ia Drachma. Yes, like the Greek money; the Boy is a great Percy Jackson fan and a mythology buff in general, and it was his idea to get a little kitten. So we headed out to the Cat Adoption Team in Sherwood for "Kittenpalooza" and, sure enough, found an adorable kitten; this little guy.

He's very sweet and playful, so much so that he's won everyone's hearts except for Nitty Kitty, who sees him as a pest and a nuisance and hisses at him every chance she gets. Which he totally doesn't get; he thinks the Big Kitty is cool and wants to investigate her and, therefore, really is a pest and a nuisance...

So we're trying to mollify poor Nit whilst trying to conceal the existence of Nitty's cat-flap from the little guy. We just don't want him getting outside yet; he's too little and the neighborhood raccoons and stray dogs (and coyotes and who-knows-what-else...) are too dangerous. We'll see how THAT works out.

I should note in passing that this season has been a terrible one for my Portland Timbers. Right now we're sitting dead last in the MLS West and our playoff hopes are pretty much dead. So this season has become one of those sorts of seasons that try the souls of true supporters. It just doesn't feel right not to sing and chant for the team...and yet, it's hard to deny that the team is truly bad. Players that had terrific years last year have regressed to their mean, while newcomers haven't worked out. The team as a whole is just a hot mess.

On the women's side the Portland Thorns have had their troubles, as well. Not as bad as the Timbers, but with several of the game's top players the Girls in Red are scrapping for the last playoff spot rather than crusing to a defense of their 2013 title. It was lovely to enjoy a 7-1 thrashing of the visiting Kansas City Blues this past Sunday, but the win left me with a real conundrum.

I am one of those idiotic fans that have irrational superstitions about games. I have a beloved Timbers jersey from the minor-league years I wear to every home match in hopes that the tiny spark of individual mojo will spur the team on to victory. On the Thorns side this season has been a shuffle through a series of team scarves.

I started out wearing my season ticket-holder scarf from last season and the result was a cascade of losses and draws. So I retired that scarf and turned to the red-and-black striped scarf of the "Rose City Riveters" supporters' group.

No luck.

So the whole connection between that and this post is that Sunday I unfurled the comical gimmick "Too Balls Is Too Many" scarf that the Riveters doped up to help a local cat charity. The "Feral Cat Coalition" is an outfit that specializes in catching these wild moggies and snipping out their girl- and boy-bits. The scarf itself is kind of a hoot, with a lurking cat face at one end (with a rather evil expression that pretty much says without words "you bastards, you cut my balls off..!") and the Riveters logo at the other,

And the team responded with a seven-goal outburst, hammering the visiting Kansas City Blues 7-1; who would have ever thought that describing a soccer team as "...just like watching Brazil!" would be a huge insult?

So. As much fun as it was, I'm stuck in my superstitious bind with my ridiculous cat scarf until we defend the championship or the season ends.

Mee-ow!

Big soccer fun

I took my 8-year old daughter to the Portland Thorns women's professional match this past Sunday.

Here's her match report:

“Well, soccer is so much more fun when you’re there! On TV it’s really boring, but when you go there there’s so much to do. I liked the singing, and the colors were pretty (she was talking about the Pride Week tifo I've shown below that the Rose City Riveters unveiled before the match). I liked watching the people run away when the rain came. And the C'mon, Guy (Khao Man Gai) chicken wings were really super tasty, and riding the MAX train was fun. And I want to go back again, because it was really fun and nice.”

“What did you think about the game, sweetie?”

“Well, I didn’t really care much about that. It was OK, I guess.”

I let her know that I thought the game was much more than OK (and it was, a solid 2-nil win for the home team...) and she conceded with the casual carelessness my kid uses when she gives in to me over something that matters to her not a whit. It didn't matter, really. In the words (between mouthfuls of cotton candy) of Stumptown’s youngest soccer reporter: “That was really fun!”

It was a very sweet day. The Girl was her usual cheerful, bubbly self and she loved everything; she loved the train, and the people, and the food, and the colorful tifo that I helped construct, and just being with her Daddy. I looked down at her glossy head and she skipped alongside me back to the truck to drive home and wondered how I had been so lucky to find this sweet and loving little person.

No disrespect to the players, but I think I have the real Pride of Portland sleeping in the little bed in the shed-roofed room at the back of my house.

Sayings of Chairman Missy

We had some dear friends come to visit this past weekend. They and we go back to our wait for referrals from the CCAA, so we both have adoptive kiddos from China.

You know our little Miss. Their son, let's call him X, is about the same age but is as different from Missy as little boys are from little girls. He's funny and energetic but he's also a prankster, always trying for a tickle or a joke, and always on the lookout for something and someone to spoof on.

Our Miss was unimpressed. She confided her distrust in her parents' obvious interest in trying to to enlist her in entertaining the guest to her mother.

"I hope you don't expect me to play with that boy," she hissed, "...even if he is one of my kind."

But don't think that Missy is completely ungrateful for her family. Just the other day she brought home something she wrote for a Thanksgiving assignment titled "What I'm thankful for".

"I am thankful for...my family, because I lost my birth family. I am thankful for at least HAVING a family."

"I like spending time with my family so I won't have to be a bored orphan."

Boredom.

It's worse than being an orphan.

Princesses - They're Just Like Us!

They get up early to go to daycare, and when they put on their pink princess dress, they layer underneath it, because......"there's a hole down there and people can look in and see the puff-puff."

(apologies to the Salsa Family)

Run, Mojo, Run

What a busy weekend!First, Mojo and the littles went away for the last Friday and Saturday of Spring Break. They journeyed down to the Oregon Coast and had a wonderful time, seeing elk, tufted puffins and giant octopus and sharks (at the Aquarium in Newport), a bobcat, and the usual beautiful coastal scenery.They ate enormous pancakes at Camp 18, ice cream in Tillamook, played in the dunes, and hiked in the woods. The kiddos were so jazzed they couldn't wait to tell me everything about it when they got home, falling through the door in a damp flurry of small hugging arms and excited babble.Oh, and they dimed their mommy off for getting stopped in Rockaway Beach at the speedtrap I would happily have told her about if I'd known she was going to speed through it...

I had a lovely sort of weekend of my own. Without anyone to distract me, either delightfully or busily, I spent a quiet night at home, reading, and watched a very silly romantic movie with Lucy Liu as the heroine (who was surprisingly sweet and affecting, really...) and an early night. Got up early Saturday and did some silent yoga in the dawn-gray house, enjoyed coffee and some international soccer, repaired the basement overhead socket, did all the dishes, laundry, swept and mopped, took a load to the Goodwill and another to the dump, grocery shopped, and returned to sit and rad some more (I'm busy with two good histories at the moment; Goodwin's "Team of Rivals" and Alastair Horne's "To Lose A Battle" on the fall of France, 1940.

It was good to see my family again late Saturday. But, I have to admit, it was a nice quiet time to myself Friday evening and Saturday morning...So with everyone home, Sunday we got up early and went north across the River so that Mojo and the kiddos could run in the "Third Annual Fort Vancouver Run". Mojo, who has been running for exercise lately, ran in the 6K, Peep in the 1K, and little Missy in the kiddie "fun run".It was a nasty, cold, rainy day, but everyone dressed warmly, and we were all excited either by the prospect of racing or the excitement of seeing our family run. Everyone agreed that, no matter how fast (or slow) they were, everyone ran faster than Daddy. Daddy growled that his knees were now bone-on-bone and that he'd gladly have taken everyone else a mile down Ardennes Street at a six-minute pace twenty years ago. That impressed nobody.In the first race Mojo was nothing short of spectacular; 6k in 37 minutes, 152 out of 315, seventh in her age group (out of 27), solid 10 minute miles in her very first competitive run.She got a good start, ran smoothly, and ended with a good kick down to the line. Yay, Mojo-Mommy!The Peep was next, and he, too, got a good start but well back in the pack, but pushed up and kept a good pace, passing several bigger kids on the way. He fist-bumped Fred the Fred Meyer Bear on the way across the finish, and was thoroughly proud of himself.Little Miss HATED Fred (she said "I liked it except for Fred Bear's hairy little paw!")and she ducked away from him at the start - the weisenheimer running things at the start house had the bright idea of starting the tinies by having Fred tap them on the head! - and took off down the little sprint around the parking lot.She finished in the middle of the pack but was very pleased with her effort and loves her little finisher's medal.We went and celebrated with dim sum, and ice cream, and came home very tired and happy.So it was really a busy, lovely weekend; hope yours was, too.

Carwash

Woo
You might not ever get rich
But let me tell ya it's better that diggin' a ditch.
There ain't no tellin' who ya might meet. .
A movie star or may be even an Indian Chief.

(Workin' at the) car wash.
Workin' at the car wash yeah !
Come on and sing it with me car wash.
Get with the feelin' y'all car wash yeah.Come summer the work gets kind a hard
This ain't no place to be if ya planned on being a star.
Let me tell you it's always cool
And the boss don't mind sometimes if ya act a fool.

At the car wash
Talkin' about the car wash yeah!
Come on and sing it for me car wash.
Car wash yeah!(Work and work) Well those cars never seem to stop comin'.
(Work and work) Keep those rags and machines hummin'
(Work and work) my fingers to the bone
(Work) at five I can't wait 'til it's time to go homeHey
get your car washed today.
Fill up and you don't have to pay.
Come on and give us a play.
Get a wash right away.Car wash talkin' about the car wash yeah!
Woo car washNot just a classic Seventies cult film. It's what you do on a Labor Day Sunday.

Friday Jukebox: Adorable Asian Preschooler Edition

Came across this via another adoptive mom.I have NO idea who "Frances and Aiko" are, but they're cute as little bugs.

OK, here's some information about them: seems that they are products of some sort of Taiwanese "Idol" show, and are now part of something called the "Hello! Project". Go figure. I hope to hell that our entertainment quirks (Marriage Ref, anyone?) are as impenetrably odd to Asian audiences as many of theirs are to us.