Jen Here! We have some news we want to share with everyone. Wallace and I are moving from cloudy Portland to sunny Austin in June! We’ve hoped to move to Austin for quite some time and our dreams are now coming true. It’s not just the sun and BBQ we’re looking forward to, we’re really excited to be near family again.

The reason we’re moving is because Wallace got a promotion in February and is now part of a new group, styled after a graduate program laboratory, that does advanced simulations and programming on future tool designs for the Japanese factory. Since the other handful of people in his group are all in Austin, it doesn’t make sense for us to be sitting in the rain by ourselves. I will be leaving Columbia Sportswear and will be taking some time to figure out my next move. We don’t have an official move date yet, but it will likely be toward the end of June. The move should be pretty smooth because we didn’t buy a house here in Portland and our rental lease ends June 30th.

Wallace’s best friend Josh is a real estate agent in Austin and will be helping us with our search. Tokyo Electron will fly us to Austin in May to do some house hunting. The relocation package also includes a month’s stay in corporate housing, but after the last decade or so in apartments, hotel rooms, college apartments, and dorms, we are hoping to get into a house right away. Of course, after years of watching home improvement shows I can’t wait to paint walls (no more white walls!).

I’ll update when we have more details, but we hope y’all come visit us in Austin!

P.S. If you need to order any Columbia gear, get your orders/requests in early so I can get them filled by June.

Here is a link to the Home Town Heroes page of radio station, KSSN 96 in Little Rock Arkansas. Our nephew, John, posted a picture of his brother, Jeffrey, who is in the Army stationed at Fort Lewis,  in Washington State. Jeff is the second soldier listed on their Home Town Heroes page. We are proud of Jeff and his accomplishments and his service to our country. Thanks John for being so thoughtful.

PS It’s snowing again.

Here is a link to the National Weather Service forecast for our area. We have tried to get as geographically close to our house as we can. If the link works for you, the red dot is close to where our house is. Snow is in the general forecast as far as we can see. We have found this weather forecast to be generally accurate. If it says it will start to snow at 11 am, darn if it doesn’t. I’m not sure if we will get much accumulation with this projection, but it will be fun to see if the projection is correct.

Yeah! We like daylight savings time. It is still light at 7 pm. It makes me feel like I have more time in my day and gives me less reason to procrastinate, something I do very well.

I held a contest on December 22nd, 2007 to guess the animal that made the tracks in the snow. Mary Beth won with the correct answer in the fastest time. Matt won for most creative response, and Mike for the best ethnic response and only other response. See following:

Matt says:  Dec. 22nd, 2007 @ 5:29 pm   Obviously, it’s an extra-terrestrial. You can tell by the radioactive glow.

Mary Beth says: Dec. 22nd, 2007 @ 7:35 pm  It’s a rabbit.

Mike says: Dece 22nd, 2007 at 11:24 pm  I’m gonna say you’ve been visited by the famed Hannukah bunny. 

Well, I promised to send a prize for the winning answer after Christmas. I have procrastinated enough, and it is well after Christmas, so I want to report that I have put the prizes for all three respondents in the mail today. Mary Beth gets a set of locally handmade leather coasters and Elk Doo, Mike gets Road Apples and Matt gets Chocolate Moose Nuts. And each contestant gets an “I Love Westcliffe Colorado” bumper sticker, designed by Mike and distributed by Jay. Enjoy. And if I hold another contest, I hope more of you will respond, you never know what prize I might have for the next one.

I stand corrected. Julia and Amanda are guarding the gate at Lake Whitney Motocross Park. This is motorcycle racing, not bicycle and it is a national race, the AMA Parts Unlimited Spring Classic. I have attached the link to their webpage above, in case you are interested. Amanda has been working this event for several years and this is Julia’s first time. This weekend was the time for the vendors and workers to arrive, and the racers and all of their RVs are coming in now. Amanda said they were expecting over a thousand racers. It was well over that number, but I don’t remember the exact figure. Jewls will not be there for the whole week, since she has class and it isn’t spring break at UNT yet, but Amanda is there for the duration. If I get any cool stories or pictures to report, you can rest assured that I will.

When we moved to Colorado, we thought our votes would count more than they did in Texas. However, Custer County is a staunch Republican stronghold, but this year the Democrats are coming out of the closet and participating in significant numbers. I registered independent, because I thought that would give me more flexibility, but I have found that I am limited to general elections. I plan to change my registration at the county courthouse soon, and take a stand as a Democrat. But fortunately, Jay made the right choice the day we got our driver licenses and registered to vote. The Colorado caucus process is new to us and we are learning a lot.

There are three precincts in Custer County. We are in Precinct 1, which is the largest. At the Dem. Caucus on Feb 5th, Pct 1, Obama had more votes than Clinton, and based upon the votes, delegates were elected to represent each candidate. Obama had 17 delegates, and Clinton 4. Jay was appointed one of the four Pct1 delegates to represent the Clinton advocates. Today was the Custer County Democratic Assembly. The appointed delegates (30) from all three precincts met to elect Delegates to the State Congressional and Democratic Conventions. Custer County is eligible for 4 delegates to each of the conventions, the split was 3 for Obama, and 1 for Clinton based upon the group vote today. The delegates are not required to continue to represent their local voters’ wishes, but are generally expected to do so. Jay was elected by the Clinton delegates to represent Custer County at the Congressional District Convention, and Jan M. was elected to represent them at the State Democratic Convention. There is also an alternate for each Delegate. The Obama supporters did the same thing for their three delegates. An aside, it appears that the Clinton / Obama votes were almost even in the two other precincts.

The Congressional District Convention will be held May 16th and the Democratic Convention will be May 17th in Colorado Springs, which is only 1.5 hours away. It is our understanding that a similar process will take place at each of the conventions. Colorado has been alloted 70 delegates and 9 alternates to the Democratic National Convention (to be held in Denver this August). Each convention will elect the number of state delegates allocated to their convention. The rest of the 70 delegates come through other venues.

Apparently, it gets harder and harder to get elected as a delegate, the further up the chain that one goes. Since we are newbies at this political process, it is unlikely that Jay will attempt to try to be elected as a state delegate to the national democratic convention. Those individuals who are rabidly involved in the state Democratic Committees and the election process will know the people & how to get elected. But it is a very interesting process and we have met people that don’t bowl or quilt, or are members of Rotary.

I’ll enjoy sitting in the gallery and watching the democratic process at work. While our vote may not count a whole lot more than it did in Texas, we are definitely more closely involved in the electoral process here in Custer County.

We are projected to get more snow tonight and tomorrow, again next Wednesday and next weekend. I hope the family and friends in North Texas, Alba, and Arkansas enjoyed the snow that we sent your way on Thursday and Friday.

Wallace and Jen will be in Austin this weekend. Jen will fly home on Tuesday, while Wallace gets to stay at work at the home office. They will take the opportunity to scout out the housing market, check out neighborhoods, etc. in preparation for their transfer to Austin. As far as I know, the date is still in the future and to be determined, but it never hurts to start learning the territory. Wallace’s former roommate and best man, Josh Bushner, is a realtor and will have just returned from a trip to Israel, and will be of tremendous help in their exploration of Austin neighborhoods. Wallace reported that Jen got the “Employee of the Year Award”, or something like that from her company, Columbia just recently. He says she is known as the go-to person if you want to get something done. Yeah Jen! Congratulations!

Matt purchased his own car a few months ago. I can’t remember if I mentioned it or not, but I’ve been waiting for him to post a story about it, but since he hasn’t, I will.  It’s a Mazda RX7 with a rotary or Wankell engine(?). I’m sure all of the males and some of the females reading this will know exactly what that is, but for the rest of us, it’s a sports car. He is very happy with his new car and that he was able to sell his old car on Craig’s list in less than an hour.

Julia sent me pictures of snow in Fort Worth and Denton. We had a big spring snow here yesterday, which must be the same front that moved through Texas today. I hope everyone in TX stayed safe on the roads. The snowman is courtesy of the neighbor’s kids and the frozen toes are courtesy of doing a good deed for the neighbor while wearing flip flops in the snow. Julia and Amanda are going to be in Whitney again this weekend taking admissions to the BMX races there. The snow slowed down their departure and this prior obligation prevents their visiting with Wallace and Jen in Austin this weekend, but its good money and apparently fun.

In my last report, which says Monday the 3rd, but was really Sunday night just after midnight, I addressed the snow that we got on Sunday & coming home with low visibility, etc. We ended up with 4 -5 inches by Monday morning, and had no trouble driving in to town for my bowling  and Jay’s Rotary meeting. Upon arrival home, Jay decided to try to run the snowplow to improve the road conditions for the electricians due to come the next morning. He and the Bronco had another falling out, as the snow plow dove into a snow bank just before the road levels out after the aspen grove. He had to walk home up hill and was due at the bowling alley in 45 minutes! We took the Tahoe and were able to get around the Bronco and got in to town just fine. HOWEVER, we didn’t make it past the Bronco on the way up the hill later that night. Fortunately, we had the Tahoe and Onstar! and were able to call for help. Jay’s comment was “Texas is looking pretty good about now!” Our contractor, Doug, who has a new baby less than a week old, was gracious enough to come out to help pull the Tahoe out of the snow bank. We ended up back in town at a local motel, Westcliffe Inn, at 11 pm with the clothes on our backs and Ted. After a continental breakfast, we hot footed it to the grocery store to buy toothbrushes and toothpaste, before heading into Pueblo for a dental cleaning appt for Ted and sundry shopping opportunities. Needless to say, the electricians didn’t make it to our house either, but Freddy White our snow plow contractor, was able to plow the road and release the Bronco from it’s snowy prison, just as we were coming home. The road looked great! Slight snow was projected for Wednesday. We had hopes the electricians would still make it. But no, the snow started about9 pm Tuesday night and didn’t let up until late Wednesday night. But we made it into town for Wed league bowling and our library shelving duties and we made it home safely, snuggled in and watched the snow fall. Today was beautiful, sunny and bright, you couldn’t tell that Freddy had plowed at all and Jay braved the Bronco one more time. Today, he and the Bronco came to an understanding and all went well. We also have a plan on how long I’m to wait before I come to rescue him, because he’s not making that walk up the hill again, and he’ll honk everytime he makes it back up the hill before taking another pass, so I know all is well and can start the timer once more. All the cloudy white in the background of the pictures is not fog or clouds, but more falling snow. You can see we have just arrived, as there is little snow on the Tahoe and mucho snow on the other cars. I have given you earlier photos of similar perspectives so you can see the difference a little snow makes!

The bathroom remodel is moving very slowly, due to delay in getting the plumbing fixtures and the weather preventing the electricians getting here. But tomorrow, Friday, looks like a good day for the electricians, then Doug can get finished with more dry wall repair and start on the floor. The cabinets have arrived, but have to wait for the plumber and the drywall repairs. I do have a picture of the new tile in the atrium though. It will be the same for the bathroom. We haven’t found the glass top for the cafe table in the atrium yet though.

We had some visitors to the front yard a few weeks ago (2-17-08). There was a group of 6+ deer roaming the front drive, foraging for food in the snow. I took pictures through Jay’s office window (ah! the screen) and from the back deck. There are at least two family groups that routinely cross the yard. Our dogs will totally ignore the deer if there is a ball in sight, they’d rather play with Jay than notice nature up close. Funny dogs.

I took a picture of the recent lunar eclipse on Feb 20th. I thought that the picture didn’t come out well, when I looked at the camera screen. I should have looked on the computer, because you can see the beginning of the eclipse, but I didn’t bother taking more pictures. But we watched it, pretty cool. Then a few days later I caught the moon setting over the Sangres at dawn. Another beautiful view in paradise.

Last weekend I got to bowl with Jay and JB and Betty Lee in the Pueblo Men’s tournament. Betty and I found out that we could join the men’s league and bowl with the guys, so we did. In January, we just had to watch in Walsenburg, but this time we bowled. We wore our team shirts and had a great time. We didn’t do well enough to win any money, but we had a lot of fun. Jay’s team from the Walsenburg tournament came in second place and won $250. Each member got $50. So he’s now more pro than I am, since I only got $5.50 in an non-sanctioned tournament (which means it was just for fun.)

When we first saw this house it was October 2006 there was snow on the driveway. We knew it was a long driveway, but no one told us about the mud at the bottom of the driveway when the snow started to melt. Between the mailbox and the first neighbors driveway the road has become almost impassable due to deep ruts in very soft mud. We think it is because they have heavy trucks, deal with horses, and probably drive over the road more often than we do. The best time to enter or leave is early in the morning or late at night while the road is frozen. We have had to put the cars in low four wheel drive and just barrel through, sometimes sliding a little sideways. We were getting worried about really getting stuck. However, on Friday we had gravel delivered to try to build up the road base. The first dump truck got stuck in the mud and had to leave a high clump of rocks that was not easy to navigate. The owner of the excavating company, Freddy, came back the next morning, Saturday, very early and dropped a second load of gravel. He was to come back later in the afternoon to spread it around and work it in. We left around noon to drive to Pueblo to bowl with our friends, JB and Betty, and to watch JB bowl in the 700 club tournament on Sunday. (This tournament was for anyone who has bowled a 700 scratch series in the last 10 years. That is an average of three games over 230 points, which is better than most of the pros bowl in the big tournaments. Not easy to do.) When we left on Saturday, it was warm and sunny and the temps in Pueblo hit 77 degrees. Today when we came back from Pueblo, it was during a snow storm warning, with blowing snow, poor visibility and 25 degrees. We had no trouble driving over the ruts, because the ground was frozen and covered by snow. So we couldn’t see the result of the groomed gravel. I’ll report back on the success of the roadbed treatment later in the week, when we can see the road again. PS these are the shallow ruts, the deep ones were covered by gravel already, just so you don’t think we are wimps!

The locals say that March and April are the times for big, heavy snows, but the snow doesn’t last long because the days are warmer. We have two sets of guests coming at the end of March, yeah!! for skiing and quilting.

Congratulations to Megan (Pereda) and Kevin Sisk on the birth of their first baby, Damian. He was born on February 25th, weighed 8# 12 oz and mom, dad and baby are all doing well. My BFF Brenda is the first grandmother of our group. My other BFF Denise and I have decided we are now “Grandmother’s once removed”, because we consider ourselves family and take a proprietary interest in each other’s children!