A couple of days back I walked over to a colleague to brainstorm a couple of things I was working on. He had his headset on, so I just walked over so he could see me.

He pulls off his headset and so I asked him if he had a few minutes. Yeah, he did. So, I plonked my laptop on his desk and started walking him through the feature I was designing and the crossroads I was at. He hadn't turned his music down, so it was playing quite loud, but I wasn't really paying attention to it.

The next song came on when I was mid sentence. I stopped and said... "Wait, is that... I wish you were a beer?". He was a little embarrassed but I had my helmet on and was in my way-back machine. It was the summer of 1991 when I got a bootlegged CD of Cycle Sluts From Hell. Yeah baby, that was good year in music for me.

Around that time I started listening to Tesla, Anthrax, Soundgarden, Monster Magnet, Megadeth and Cycle Sluts From Hell.

And, I gave up on Ratt, Mötley Crüe, Poison and other glam rock bands. They went on just too long after the mid 80's with their rubbish music.

Queen released Innuendo, where Freddie looked like death and he died a few months after. This album was just perfect, back to the kind of music they did in the 70's. Early Queen.

I wasn't quite into the grunge scene then and never quite got into it. That is when Skid Row with Sebastian Bach & Co. created a classic metal album that was at #1 for a while.

I was hearing rumors of Bon Jovi's new album, which actually came out next year. Quite a disappointment and it only continued.

Metallica had their first metal album for the masses. The black album. Tricia still hums these songs.

Oh and and yeah, it was also Whitesnake's last year together. Hmm Tawny Kitaen.


Now, I have a special place in my brain for CSFH. This was a female metal band that sand about the same things that their male counter parts did. They had quite a ferocious intensity about them. They only released the one album and then kaput. Think of them as heavy metal Joan Jetts x4...

Then back to my design at crossroads.

India's Main Battle Tank. With a 120mm cannon, that's one bad mf

Labels: Arjun

Tricia told me about the family reunion that was going to happen at Aunt Thera & Uncle Dave's place in Bend, Oregon. Google maps told us that it was a good 12 hours away. I really wanted to go, but was groaning inside.
 
I did my math... 550 miles + 2.5 year old girl + 6 month old boy + little Prius != one day of driving

Unless... unless you have kids like ours. These kids are bloody resilient. Heck yeah. We headed off at 5:30am and after 3 stops we got to our hotel in Bend at 3:30pm.

Tricia's dad was already at Uncle Dave's place so we quickly showered and got to the clubhouse in the community they live in, in Awbrey Glenn. We mingled, spoke to people and just got to know everyone. Well, I was meeting many people for the first time. Buit, that was when I realized that they had a dress code. White shirts and blue shorts/pants. Tricia, her dad, Arjun, Eve and I were totally standing out. I thought the dress code was kinda cute. I don't own a white shirt nor do I own blue shorts or pants, so I had nuttin.

After dinner Uncle Dave pulled out the karaoke machine. Wait... what?
Karaoke in 2008? I think the 90's are calling and they want the Karaoke machine back. Anyway, sometime ask me about Karaoke in Australia. Completely mad Asian dudes. Back to the present day... Eve saw the machine and the mike and promptly ran over there and danced, sang and basically did her "look at me" routine. Pretty funny.

This was the first time Tricia's dad, Clint had seen Arjun. And Arjun was so happy to see him, drool on him and grab at his honker. They had a grand 'ol time together. It's too bad he lives so close and yet so far away like Tricia's mom in Albany, Oregon.

Eve loved hanging out with Melissa. They played constantly. Melissa is all of 5 years old but acted like her much older sister and would carry her around. The danced, ran, sang and swam together. Of course I really enjoyed speaking to Chuck, Krista, Matt and Dawn. I had just met them the one time about 3 years back and spending 3 days with them was really nice. We hope to head up to Portland over Thanksgiving. I don't want to take any time off work, so we will probably drive up the weekend before, spend the week there and drive back the weekend after. I will work during the day and spend time with friends and family in the evening. We are looking forward to seeing the Griders, Gokhan/Stephanie, Serhat/Sarka, Ken/Ingrida, Niranjan/Shilpa and some of our other friends from Portland

On Sunday, we went to Red Robin for lunch. Yup, Red Robin. That is my usual place for lunch during a work day, so not really a place I would go during a holiday, but I'm usually good to go with the flow. I spoke to Matt later and he too said we should have headed to a little brew pub a mile up the street instead of here, but hey, Red Robin isn't the place I would have chosen, but they are consistent with what they do and they have great fries.

The next, Labor day, Uncle Dave and Aunt Thera had all of us over for lunch. We hung out with everyone and got to know them some more. It was a really nice day and there was a little landscaped stream that Eve and Melissa loved.

We had a really good time and will certainly go back next year. Our thanks to Aunt Thera/Uncle Dave/Aunt Judy/Uncle Butch for the entire weekend for fun.

Labels: Bend, family reunion, Grider, Oregon, Sturdevant