v3.5 – Now Smartphone/Mobile Device-Capable

It was time for a change, and there have been a few lately.  I made some updates to the site, including blog software and database upgrades, look/feel change, and tighter integration with facebook.

Probably the most significant upgrades, however, are:

• This site should now be readable on your mobile phone.  Check it out and let me know if you run into issues.
• New address.  This blog can now be found at http://www.allthehalls.net. Please update your bookmarks.  The old randyehall.com address will continue to work for awhile.

My mother passed away this morning at about 4am Central time on Wednesay, January 6, 2010.

A rosary will be held for her on Thursday, January 7 at 7pm at

Santa Marta Senior Living Community
13800 W 116th Terrace
Olathe, 66062

The funeral mass will be held on Saturday, January 9 at 10am at The Church of the Magdalen in Wichita, Ks.  Mom will be buried immediately following the funeral mass next to her mother at St. Mark’s Church in Colwich, Ks.

A very sad day.

Here is the obituary that appeared in the Wichita Eagle:

Mom's Obituary in the Wichita Eagle

Thanks to all of you who visited, sent notes, and most importantly, prayed for her.

A brief photostory of her life follows:

• Windows Media (WMV)
• H.264 (MP4)
• Quicktime Movie (MOV)

Riley wrote this note today.

Riley's Note To Grammy - 01-03-2009

Top 10 of 2009

One of my favorite posts to write all year, and definitely one of the most time consuming.

I’m a huge music fan…it’s how I spend every second not otherwise occupied.  So I take great care in my “Top” list every year.  These are the CD’s that have spun all year on my iPod (my moblie lifestyle doesn’t let me listen to CDs anymore).

This year was too hard, and I gave up on trying to name a “top 10.”  Instead, I put together a “Top 20″ that breezes thru entries #20 to 11, then focuses on 10-1.

Video is here

For those that don’t have time for the video presentation, here is the listing:

10-20 – in no particular order

• Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears – Mad Valentines
• The Pundits – Echo Chamber
• Josh Fix – This Town Is Starting To Make Me Angry
• Fun. – Aim and Ignite
• Brendan Benson – My Old, Familiar Friend
• Scott Simons – The Start of Something
• The Syn – Big Sky
• Bob Mould – Life and Times
• The Luxury – In the Wake of What Won’t Change
• The Honeydogs – The Sunshine Committee

The Top 10

• Roger Powell – Blue Note Ridge
• Bleu – A Watched Pot
• Lamar Holley – Confessions of a College Student
• Brian Wilson – That Lucky Old Sun
• Halloween, Alaska – Champagne Downtown
• Tim Christensen – Superior
• Vinyl Candy – Land
• Kevin Gilbert – Nuts/Bolts – 2 CD’s — I opted to combine the entries
• Francis Dunnery – There’s A Whole New World Out There
• It Bites – The Tall Ships

I spent a lot of time on planes, carried 2 ipods on every trip, and spent A LOT of time listening to music.   This list accurately reflects many hours of audio investment .

If you have time, I encourage you to view the video.  This captures a short summary of thoughts on the Top 10 entries.

Until next year….

Thanksgiving 2009

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

The Halls had a very quiet, cozy Thanksgiving in Portland, but we missed having family near.  I took the entire week off to catch my breath from the busiest year I’ve ever had workwise.  I had several projects around the house that I’d been putting off.  I haven’t gotten everything done, but I’m making progress.  Now I know how Becky feels every darn day (time goes too fast, and there’s not enough of it to get thru all the daily projects).

The kids were in school until Wednesday so the family-time didn’t start until Wednesday pm.   It was Becky’s b-day on Wednesday, so we had a little family outing, followed by a snickers cake (mmmmmm).  We took the kids to the Sherwood YMCA to climb the rock-wall.  That was a good experience for the kids.  The guy who manned the ropes was VERY good to the kids and everyone got up to the top at least once.

Thanksgiving was cool and rainy, but the fire was nice and warm.  Mom had lots of help in the kitchen:  Reed made the stuffing muffins this year, Riley, Rachel, and Robyn helped peel potatoes and make butter (The neighbors from across the street gave us a couple of jars of heavy cream, a pecan pie, homemade cranberry sauce, and a bottle of wine–thanks guys!!!).

Little Randy manned the toy train almost all day.  Probably just as well because there was a lot of help in that kitchen.

Our turkey this year took over 4hrs to bake, so we were pretty hungry when the popper popped.  And it was fantastic.  Becky outdid herself again, and we had a really nice dinner, complete with the fancy schmancy china and silverware.

It was good to talk to everyone via phone, but we wish you could have been here.  After dinner, we had a video chat call with Nana & Papa in Arizona to catch up for a bit.

Not sure yet what the rest of the weekend holds.  Lots going on in and around Portland this weekend so we’re going to play it by ear.

Here’s a video of our Thanksgiving celebration that includes video from the kids’ school program, rock wall, kitchen shenanigans, and dinner.

Hope your holiday was fantastic.  Links follow….

• Windows/Mac H.264 (MP4)
• Windows Media (WMV)

Halloween 2009

Very quick update:   here’s a video of the Hall Family Halloween 2009 fun:

• Windows/Mac H.264 (MP4)
• Windows (WMV)

More soon.  It’s a holiday week, and I’m off all week, so the camera and machines will likely be working overtime.

See ya!

Come look inside the dog’s nose.

See that?  I’ve piqued your interest, haven’t I?

Hallie's Rhinoscopy

Hallie, our 14-yr-old Beagle/Cocker mix has developed a bad breathing problem.  We’ve visited her veterinarian several times, and he’s been REALLY good to her (Thank You, Dr. Christensen), but we were running out of ideas on what’s wrong.

So I took her to a specialist this morning, and they did a rhinoscopy.  Essentially, they stuck a probe (with camera) up Hallie’s nose and back behind through her throat.  They got some really interesting pictures.  Looks like a growth and polyps that are blocking her airway.  They biopsied it, and we should have results back late next week.

For the not-so-queasy, here is a video of the procedure.  There’s a little bit of blood, but you can clearly see the mass, especially towards the end of the video in the retro 1 & retro 2 sequences.

If the video’s too much (and trust me, I understand), you can see the mass in the image above (see retro p1 frame).

So for the next 68 seconds, here is the view inside Hallie’s nose.

Enjoy!  BTW, this has to be the oddest blog post I’ve ever written.

Video

Fall 2009 Catch-Up

I’ll bet you thought I’d forgotten about this blog.  I haven’t, but to be honest, Becky’s been taking so many pictures, it was tough to figure out where to start!   Well, that’s not totally true….it’s been a little hectic at work, with lots of travel, late nights, and phone calls.  I was determined, though, to get an update out this weekend.

About the photos, there were hundreds to comb through, and I’ve captured some of the best out of several outings and events.   I wasn’t able to fit all of them in the video update….the video would have been VERY long, but the “best of” list is captured in the Gallery (link below).

So on to the update….

Becky took the kids to visit Nana & Papa in Phoenix at the end of July.  I had to stay home and work   Then it was back-to-school.  We now have 4-second-graders, and a fourth grader.

Fall sports was a real challenge with Reed playing Fall Ball.  He got hooked on catching this season, and was starting catcher for almost all games.  And there were a lot of those.  At least 2 per weekend.

Randy played fall soccer with his buds.  That was a fun group of kids and parents, and we’re hoping to get matched up with that team again next season.

Riley and Robyn played soccer too, also with a great group of kids and parents.  Riley scored the first goal of the season, and Robyn scored several as well.

Rachel decided to take fall off to concentrate on her studies.  She’s turning into a little brain.  We’ll be starting something for the winter here shortly (Yo-yo university and maybe gymnastics).

We also celebrated a big birthday:  Reed turned a decade old.  Hard to believe it’s been ten years since the little guy started keeping us up at night .  He’s a good kid, and is getting good grades.

We’re trying a few new things this fall.  First was skating, and this is becoming a kid favorite.  There’s an ice arena not far from the house, and we’ve visited a few times already.  This season is aptly names, as that’s what I did a lot of during our little family outings:  fall.  The kids have picked it up quickly, I still struggle.   If you watch the video closely, you might catch a bit of my prowess on the ice.  Thanks, Becky for making sure to get that on video, by the way.

I’ve got some new pix/video to go through now of Halloween, and I’ll make an attempt to get this out before Christmas .

So the video linked below, has updates from late summer to early November (minus Halloween).  Francis Dunnery phoned in a cover of an old Faces tune that we’ve been listening to alot, and Todd Rundgren and Daryl Hall dropped by to add a live tune.  Man, those guys are noisy, and they eat a lot!

Enjoy.  Hope all’s well with you and yours.  OK, readers.  Your turn to drop us a note and tell us how you’re doing .

Links to video/pix follow.  If you have Quicktime installed, I’d recommend viewing the H.264 (MP4) or MOV version.  For some reason the WMV video had a few artifacts.  I’ll tweak it if I get a few minutes (yeah, right).

• H.264 (MP4)
• Quicktime (MOV)
• Windows (WMV)
• Gallery (Pictures)

Hood To Coast Team

About 6 months ago, I got an invite from some friends (John and Shari) to join their team for the 28th Hood To Coast run.

Exchange Point 30 -- John getting the handoff from Christine

Hood to Coast is the worlds largest relay:

• 197 miles
• 1000 teams of 12 runners, (6 runners each in 2 support vans).  So that’s roughly 2000 vans of runners
• 36 legs of the race
• 3500 volunteers
• Countless blisters

We were team #439, and our vans rolled out of the Sonrise Church parking lot at 6am on Friday morning, headed for Mt. Hood.  I had some big work deliverables due Friday at noon, so I stayed behind, then took the light rail out to Gresham, walked to Exchange Point #9 (my first leg), and met the team there.

This was my first HTC, so I had no idea what to expect.  Fortunately, Becky had taken care of me and packed lots of good running food and water.  She was quite the van hero when we discovered a box of Orange/Cranberry scones in the bottom of the bag.  And I think she’s already superwoman for taking the kids so I could go play (especially after all the work travel recently).

I have been running, but work’s gotten in the way of getting to the level of conditioning that, in retrospect, I think I could have used for this run.  I wasn’t prepared for the sheer level of fatigue and pain.  in the nearly 48 hours the team was up, there were maybe 1-2 hours where we got any sleep, and it wasn’t good sleep.

This was the first race, I’d run in more than 10 years, probably not the best way to get re-engaged competitively with the sport, but it worked out OK.

I ran 3 legs, totalling just under 18 miles.

The first leg was OK, but I didn’t pace myself well out of the chute, so I was tired when I finished the first 6.5mile leg.

My second run started just after 3am in the hilly coast range, where I had no cell or GPS signal.  It was a steep uphill in near total darkness with a light drizzle, for the first 2 miles then a gradual down for the remaining 4.5 miles.   I was counting on using my phone to help me track where I was and how far I had to go, that didn’t work out (the best laid plans). Todd Rundgren’s Arena helped pull me up the hills.

We managed to grab a quick shower at the Jewell High School for $3.00, and that helped relieve some of the fatique and wake me up a bit.  My 3rd leg was through a rural area near Astoria, OR.  Very very pretty, but the ache in my muscles, and the fatigue got in the way of enjoying the rolling hills and nice scenery.

Relief was the best way to describe how I felt after crossing exchange point 34, and handing off the strap to my teammate, Laura.  I caught a quick 30 minutes in the van, and got ready for a short run across the finish line.  Thank goodness it was short, because my muscles were sore at that point.  The feeling that you get when crossing the finishing line after something that physically and mentally challenging, is indescribable.  As much as it hurt, I’m looking forward to the next one.  The experience of riding in a van with 5 other stinky people telling jokes, that were hilarious then, but maybe aren’t so funny after sleep overnight, is enough to make me want to do it again.

Crossing the Finish Line With the Team

The party at the beach was something to see.  It was a very friendly crew, and cold beer has never tasted better.

I was spent, so rather than staying out at the beach, I grabbed a ride back to Portland with another teammate (Christine), whose husband came out to pick her up, and graciously allowed me to stink up their van on the way home.  Fortunately, they live across the street, so getting home was a short 2-hr trip.

The race results this morning show our total time for 36 legs, 12 runners, at 29 hours and 40 minutes.  We crossed the line as team #700 out of 1000.  Not great, but decent given the number of HTC “virgins” on the team (that # included me too).

h

Party at the Beach in Seaside

Unfortunately, we were so busy and so tired, that I did not break out the video camera.  So the stills I captured on my phone will have to do.  Next year, I’ll do better.

A Well-deserved Beer with James and John

The Oregonian (Portland Newspaper) posted a video of the beach party at the link below.  That was one of the most fun groups I’ve ever had a beer with.

Beach Party Video from the Oregonian

I was in Helsinki on Friday night, with a few hours to kill before I had to get up and leave for the airport.  Friday (8-22-09) was Helsinki Night of the Arts, and me and about 100,000 of my closest friends packed into the Helsinki streets for an all-night party–I didn’t stay out that long.

The French street theatre company, Plasticiens Volants, put on a show in Senate Square, complete with all sort of sea creatures.  I’ve not seen anything like that before.

It was wall-wall people, but I managed to work my way up front, but lost the group I was with in the process.

Senate Square

Here’s a very short, very quickly produced video of the event.  I ended up next to the speaker stacks, which could explain why I couldn’t hear well the next morning, so the sound during some segments wasn’t salvageable.  In any case, this should give you an idea of what it was like.

Video

• Windows Media (WMV)
• H.264 (MP4)