There's snow in them thar' hills!

It's snowing like crazy in OR .. and I'm glad I'm in CA!! I've been sent pictures and heard the wailing via phone .. those CA transplants are having a time of it. I'm hopeful that it will be all done by the time I get home. Wishful thinking?? One item for concern is that the airports will be open on Dec. 27. I say this only because my roommate, Carol, had to drive home because her flight was cancelled! She was supposed to fly out at 6:15 tonight and had to change her plans. It dawned on me earlier that I could possibly have the same scenario going home. Ok. Right now .. while you're reading this, cross your fingers!

I have a lot to catch up on and I think for that reason I keep putting off doing an update but I just have to share this with you. You've maybe heard me say from time to time that Cal is crazy. This is proof. For years, whenever we grab fast food -- and it doesn't matter where we get it -- he ALWAYS buys enough for 3 or 4 people when it's just the two of us. He has a prodigious appetite anyway, but he "needs" to buy enough--just in case. I don't know what it's in case of, but he's done this as long as I've known him.

Anyway, tonight we decided to get Arby's. I asked for a beef 'n cheddar sandwich (my favorite) and 2 potato cakes. Okay, I know they're not good for me. But they're small, right? And they put only 2 small cakes in a box and I really want 3. So I get two orders so I can have 3 cakes. Makes sense? Well, he comes home and tells me he thinks the people at Arby's might think he's strange or crazy (if I'd been there I could have confirmed this). He ordered 2 sandwiches, one for each of us, and SIX orders of potato cakes. Now normally that would be 12 small potato cakes. But NOPE! They asked if he wanted the "large" order and being Cal, he said to himself, why not? The large order is THREE potato cakes and each one is twice the size of the little ones. We had SIX boxes with THREE HUMONGOUS potato cakes in each box. I laughed so hard I thought I'd cry. I'm still giggling. If we lived in China, none of the kids would be starving.

More tomorrow.

Settling down in Davis

Wowza. What a week.

I flew in to Sacramento on Thursday .. yep, Thanksgiving!! Gary dropped me off at the Max train about 3:00 pm and I had a leisurely 1.5 hour trip to Portland airport. I must say, the TSA agents at that airport are the best! They actually talk to you as human beings, smile and joke around! They greet you in a friendly manner and wish you a pleasant trip. Imagine!! The TSA agents at the Oakland airport could take lessons!!

Jillian (Stacey's sister) picked me up at the airport in her Lexus SUV. This baby has a camera at the rear of the car for backing up. Sweet. Jill had just spent a week with the munchkins, throwing in one of her own for good measure. In spite of feeling very sick, she managed to bake cookies, take them for their Christmas photo-op and other activities that put me to shame. I'm making it clear right here and now that as Nana, I do not do the "perfect Aunt Jill" things! I'm good with the hugs and cuddles, but not so much the active stuff.

Jillian happily left for home the next night after Eric and Stacey came strolling in around 2:30. Eric's surgical site is already beginning to heal, and with all those staples, he looks like he has a zipper up the back of his head.

My job here so far has been to wash dishes .. by hand .. because their dishwasher is no longer working. Stacey has Calvin researching dishwashers for her so they can replace it. I also attempt, feebly, to keep the munchkins entertained; pick up Legos by the dozen; pick up various articles of clothing that are strewn around the house by an engergetic 2.5 (almost This Many!) year old who prefers wearing only underwear; and dispensing hugs and cuddles when allowed.

Somebody, who shall remain nameless, is heading into grouchy because the level-headed member of their family won't let him bend over their mini-computer for hours on end (huh!) and doesn't like not being able to do ANYTHING. Pain meds make you feel good, so common sense tends to flee. If it were his child in this situation, he'd be saying the same things, but doesn't like hearing it when it applies to him.

He's still doing his blog on a daily basis, so check it out at http://www.eblosch.blogspot.com/ if you haven't already. The good news is that he's doing better every day, for which we're thankful.

For those of you who have been yelling at me for not checking in...this counts!!

An attempt at catching up!

Wow! How can so much happen in such a short amount of time???

It has been difficult to get back on here and "talk" after Jan's funeral. I must say the girls did a fantastic job with the memorial service. She would have been so proud of them! It was a bittersweet day ... seeing people I hadn't seen in years ... spending some time with Barb ... and realizing more every day how much we are going to miss Jan. She was truly one of the sweetest women I've ever known.

She did so much to make MY life better, more than she ever knew. She started a wonderful tradition by having my bunch of hooligans over for Christmas dinner one year. That evolved into our two families sharing birthdays, Thanksgiving and Christmas from November through January. That has always been such a blessing to me and I thank her for it. I also thanked her numerous times!

I saw Barb at the service and we made tentative plans to get together on the next day to go to Joyce's open house. I never made it, because Stacey called and they were having a little Halloween party at her mom's for the kids. It had been planned for weeks and they didn't want to disappoint them. Jill (who could be an official party-planner) did a bang-up job of trick or treat baskets, prizes and food for all. The kids whacked the heck out of a pinata and although the day was laced with sadness it was also laced with joy in being together.

Work has been busy as all get out (just how busy IS that, anyway?). I'm learning more every day, but the more I learn the more I have to do! My job comes with a lot of freedom ... no one watching to see that I take exactly 45 minutes for lunch ... but it also comes with a lot of extra time put in. I work at least 1 or 2 hours extra every day and often we work right through lunch. When we have "free time", we take it! I really love what I do and that will make the 6 years fly by.

If you read my last blog you know Eric's surgery is now behind us! YAY I say that like it was a burden for me!! LOL Eric's a bit of a worrier .. he's been playing "what if" since he was 2. This wasn't a hastily made decision on his part and up to the end he was "what if"ing. Some of you have seen the pictures Stacey took -- happy smiling Eric from the front, and head shaved right up the midde with two incisions starting at the base of his neck and extending up 3/4 of his skull. The lower incision is where they did the actual surgery and the upper incision is where they took out tissue to put on the lower part.

Eric has started a blog (eblosch.blogspot.com) where he's relating his Chiari adventure. It's worth a read! He's really funny!!

I'll be flying home Thanksgiving. My flight leaves at 6:30 and I'll get to Sacramento around 7:50. Eric and Stacey will be getting home from CO the same day, but they'll be in about 3:00. The rest of the family will be here for Thanksgiving dinner and I can only hope they'll save me some leftovers.

I'll be spending the first week, and as much of the second week as they need, in Davis. Then it's home to Dublin to get caught up on things around the house and to spend time with some dear friends. I'll be home until December 27, when I fly back to Oregon. I'll be getting in touch with some of you the second week of December when I know more what my plans are. I can't wait to see everyone!!

The nights are getting chillier here. I've actually turned on the heater for a few hours when I get home. It's 34 outside right now. Got my bedroom heater turned on to 50. It gets too warm if I turn it up more than that. Weird, huh.

I need to find some shoes to wear because these sandals won't cut it for the winter. Friends at work told me to try Dansko shoes so I need to go shopping!!

It's past my bedtime so I'd better close. I'll try to get back to weekly postings just because I miss you all so much. If anyone wants to see Eric's two photos (one happy face and one shaved skull) let me know and I'll send the link.

Be sure to check out his blog and I'll see some of you SOON!

Eric's surgery

Eric's surgery was this morning. They started about 9:00 am PST and it took 4 hours. When Stacey called me they had moved him to recovery and the doctor said Eric had squeezed his hand so he was coming out of the anaesthesia.

The surgery went well. One of the tonsils (they're like a cartilage protrusion at the base of our skull) was completely blocking the opening, restricting the flow of cerebral spinal fluid. They removed a lot of bone and cauterized the tonsil on the right. He will be in recovery for a while before they move him to intensive care. They put some pins in to stabilize his head .. and he thought he had headaches before!!

I'll keep you posted as I hear more.

I'll be flying to Davis on Thanksgiving (I leave here at 6:30 pm) and stay with Eric and Stacey at least a week. More if they need me. I don't come back to Oregon until December 27. Don't ask ME how I pulled it off!! I'm just glad I was able to.

I'll check in again later ...

Update

Some of you have asked for details about Jan's services. There will be a memorial service at 1:30 on Friday afternoon at:

Wilson & Kratzer
825 Hartz Way
Danville Ca
925 820-2999


In lieu of flowers, feel free to make a donation to

American Heart Association/American Stroke Association
Western States Affiliate
Gift Processing Dept
1710 Gilbreth Road
Burlingame Ca 94010


Condolences can be sent to Stacey and Eric Blosch; 706 Oriole Avenue, Davis CA


I'm working 1/2 day tomorrow and then driving home. Hope to get there by 10:00 pm. I'll be at Eric's on Thursday helping with the kids so they can take care of business. I'll probably head back here on Sunday .. but that's still up in the air.


You all take care and I'll check in once I get back to Oregon.

News

I was going to catch up on all the trivia, but Eric called this morning and Stacey's mom, Janice Tucker, passed away either last night or this morning. Stacey's sister, Jill, went over this morning to spend time with her mom and found her in bed. It's a great shock to all of us. Jan was a wonderful lady and she'd met some of you through scrapbooking. I'm REALLY going to miss her!

As a result, Eric's surgery will most likely be postponed. No information on that as yet. I'll be coming home for Jan's services and be on hold for everything else until the kids know what they're doing.

I do need to tell you that Cal's first cataract surgery was successful. He had a small piece that is normally left around the edge, break loose. They're waiting to see if it will dissolve on it's own or if they need to take it out.

Any and all prayers for the family to help them get through this loss will be greatly appreciated.

...and darkness descends

Pat Winnie wrote that she's having blog withdrawal so I promised I'd post something tonight. It's starting to get dark earlier and earlier. Sunset is 6:58 tonight, although it's 7:00 pm and still dusk outside MY window. It's still dark when I get up in the morning and doesn't start getting light until close to 7:00. *sigh*

Carol told me at dinner that we're supposed to be in for a storm this weekend. I just looked up the weather on Weather.com and it shows "possible showers" starting Thursday with actual rain one or two days. Where does that equate to a storm?? It *has* been a bit windy the last couple nights, which is really neat. Slammed by bedroom door shut a couple times. That'll wake you up! We were downstairs and SLAM. Wowza.

Saturday I went to Centralia WA with Carol's supervisor, her sister and her sister's friend. We were scraphopping. Two stores in Centralia and one in Battle Ground. We did a lot of laughing and sharing of stories (they have some good ones!) and sharing ideas. I was worn out when I got home. Then on Sunday Cindy from the credit union came over and I showed her how to make the mini album. She stayed until about 3:00. As much fun as I had, when the entire weekend is busy it doesn't feel like I've had a weekend.

I started training last week on assigning tickets from our work request queue. Sheesh. There's so much involved with each request ... 2 or 3 places to record it and then creating the assignment. And I'm still so slow at it. I've been working overtime just to try to keep up. Brought my computer home tonight to work on it for a couple of hours.

One of the issues that seems to keep popping up is that we are 2 hours behind Austin, TX and Olathe, KS. They forget that and poor Christian is getting calls really early in the morning.

There's a conference call set up for all of GITO (Global IT-our group) so I reserved a room and have the video equipment ready to go. I called Peggy to see what number we dial in to and she tells me it's been rescheduled for Thursday. I didn't get any notice about rescheduling, so I write to the exec's secretary for clarification. She said Austin was rescheduled for Thursday, but the rest of us are tomorrow. Then Peggy asks Adrian and he gets on the phone with me and said he wants us to join the Austin conference -- all of Dalton's team will be in the same meeting -- at 9:00 CDT. Uh, Adrian? You want us to be here at 7:00? Which means I have to be here by 6:00-6:30 to set it up! Shoot, Carlos can barely make it in by 8:30. There's NO WAY he'd be in by 7:00! Adrian let us off the hook and we're doing the 9:00 meeting tomorrow. Whew.

I finished the mini-album I was making of Colin. It went in an entirely different direction from what I originally planned. It was just going to be a bunch of his baby pictures, but I wound up doing one that's more family oriented. It is SO cute!! I have a bunch of ideas for more of them. I have to order more Ellie pictures before I can finish hers, but have to wait for payday.

Cal called to let me know his schedule for his cataract surgeries. His first one is October 14, and Eric's going to work from our house so he can be with him. (THANK YOU, Eric) The second one is scheduled for November 18. I'll have to use the days I'd scheduled for Thanksgiving to go home for that so I'll be having Thanksgiving up here. I've already had two invitations to join people for the holiday, so that's nice. Of course, if I stay here, I'll spend the day with Tami and Heather.

I'm still driving home 10/29 .. Peggy said since we worked on Labor Day, I might get to take the day before as well. Otherwise, I'll leave right after work and drive halfway, spend the night and finish up the next morning.

Christian shared a cool web site with me: https://www.23andme.com/
For $399 you can have your genetic profile done! Check out the web site .. it tells you how many different characteristics, etc they report on. Find out where your ancestors are from, what diseases you may be prone to. I think it's fascinating and I'm saving my money to have it done.

Just shared Stacey's latest pics with several of you (I can add you if you want, but that means you have to look at pics of my grandkids every month) and seeing Colin in his soccer uniform reminds me of when my kids were playing soccer. Almost the same color uniforms. Time certainly does fly.

Speaking of time, it's flying even as we speak. I still have work to do, so I think I've bored you enough for this session. Hey! the wind is picking up! I love hearing the leaves rustle right outside my window. I hope some of you are planning to come up for a visit next year! I miss all of you like crazy and can't wait to see you.

Take care, everyone, and keep in touch! Love you all!

Another heat wave

It has been hot the past 2 days. I'm chuckling because I can hear several of you muttering "you don't remember what hot IS!" Whatever.

On Saturday, Carol, Tami and I went to Olympia, WA to Shipwreck Beads. OMIGOSH This place is as big as 2 large Safeways and they fill only part of it right now. The store is nothing but beads, charms and fittings for jewelry. We met my sister Lynne there. She makes her own jewelry and was going to show Carol how to get started. Carol wants to make some bracelets for Christmas. She ended up making the cutest bracelet for her granddaughter with earrings to match. I think we've got her hooked on a new hobby.

Tami doesn't like crafting that much but she thought she'd check it out and she had an idea in mind for a gift. We had to remember the 23rd Psalm to be sure to pick out the right color beads, but without my bracelet I couldn't remember all of it! We were laughing so much (and probably so loud) that a store employee said "you girls are having too much fun!" We asked if she knew the 23rd Psalm and she started quoting some off-the-wall poem which sent us off in another gale of laughter. She then offered to look it up for us on the internet! How nice was that.

Tami and Lynne are really two of a kind. They have the same sense of humor and way of talking. They're not trying to be funny, they just are. My sides were sore from laughing so much. We stayed in that store for SIX hours!! Tami would never have believed that she would be in a bead store for 6 hours without grousing about it. In fact, she was the reason we were among the last ones to walk out the door. She had a brainstorm the last 1/2 hour they were open and had to run around the store as fast as she could to gather the beads and fittings she wanted.

I had to work on Sunday. Donna is still here from the Austin ServicePoint to help us through the CTI migration and train us on the on-call process. We had to work on Sunday to finish validation of the production environment for the classes that were starting on Monday. They start live calls on Thursday and everything has to be working properly. Imagine that!

I had a bit of a shock on payday when I got my check. They finally got me switched over to the OR taxes, but payroll took all my back taxes (since April 16) out in one check! 75% of my check went to taxes. WHAT! I went into HR yesterday and asked if there was anything they could do to make it a bit easier to swallow. They're going to see if they can get payroll to reimburse me some of it and take it out in two payments. Fortunately, Cal fronted me some money from savings or I'd be up a creek without a paddle. Jiminy Chrismas!

Some have been asking about my vacation plans. Here's the deal. Eric is having his Chiari malformation reshaped (?) on October 23 in Colorado. They're hoping he can fly home on the 29th. I am going to drive to their house on the 29th (maybe leave the 28th, spend the night halfway home and finish up the morning of the 29th) so Stacey's sister can leave. I'll stay there through Nov 7th to help them maintain a normal household ... meaning someone may be high maintenance besides the two kids. :) Chances are I won't make it to Dublin this trip. If I do, it will be only on the Saturday, but I'll most likely drive home on Saturday so I can rest up before getting back to work. It's a long drive. If he can't fly home, I'll be flying to Colorado for the week.

Cal's scheduling his eye surgery for October 13. Thankfully, Eric has offered to stay with him and work from our house for a few days so I don't have to figure out a way to get home for a couple of days just before Eric's surgery. Gotta love these people who can work virtual.

We've been really busy this past week and it looks like next week won't get any lighter. Lynda, I promise I'll call first chance I get, but I've just not had any opportunity to do that!! By the time I get home, we run an errand or two, eat and I hit the bed. After taking my frustration out on the bed, I climb in and go to sleep. Just kidding!!

Pat Winnie told me she got 50 books at the Dublin Library book sale. Wowza! What a deal. Monday was bag day, buy a bag for $4 and fill it. I really miss that sale. Some people would argue that I don't need any more books, but you can never have too many. Trust me.

Alright, you guys (or as Peggy or Donna would say, y'all), behave yourselves, stay out of trouble and stay tuned until next time!

The Dog Days of Summer -- in DUBLIN!!

I can't get over how many hot days you guys are suffering through. I mean, seriously! I sit here with my window wide open, getting a nice cool breeze blowing through my room and it's a nice 63 degrees outside. I look at Dublin's temp and it's 73 already. AND you had a bit of a bounce with the earthquake. Cal said he felt the jolt, heard a crash and looked in the hallway to see a bunch of my books on the floor. At least they didn't fall off the high shelf. Lesson: when there's an earthquake, stay away from the bookshelves.

My sister, Lynne, sent an email that reminded me of something I forgot to tell you. When I was staying at her house for Amber's (her daughter, my niece) wedding reception, I was sitting on the living room sofa, minding my own business, when a squirrel caught my eye. He'd just wandered in from the back door. He saw me sitting there, working on my laptop, but that didn't seem to bother him. Lynne has a ficus tree in a huge pot and he climbed up in the pot and started digging around, probably looking for nuts he may have buried there! David was in the other room working on his computer so I said "uh, is it normal to have a squirrel in your living room?" He came out and chased it away. Said the darned thing just keeps getting more brazen and has wandered in a few times. Too funny!

Yesterday Tami, Heather, Carol, Heather's mom and I did a day trip. Tami drove us to Cannon Beach (or Eco Beach, I'm not sure which one). Once we CAREFULLY traversed the huge pebbles and rocks section, (wearing inappropriate Birkies) we made it safely to the sand. Keep in mind, these are not like southern CA beaches. The white sand is minimal. Although we didn't need to wear a jacket! There was fog just off the coast but it wasn't cold.

We took a nice long stroll along the waterline and Tami had fun showing us how she could make a quicksand spot. She'd step on the wet sand, which looked very firm, and when she removed her foot, the sand would jiggle. I confess I was giving her the "uh huh" look until I tried it myself. It was sort of like the cornstarch phenomenon. If you've ever played with a mixture of cornstarch and water, you'll know what I mean.

We saw 2 jellyfish washed up on the beach and one was still alive. Tami wanted to help it back into the water in the worst way, but none of us was going to touch it and we wouldn't let her touch it either. There were no sticks readily available so we left it to it's own fate.

A bit further on we saw a small black plastic bag sitting by itself, so Tami wondered what might be in it. We were speculating about diamonds, somebody's finger, a roll of money. On the way back Tami mentioned it again and Carol said it was probably dog poop. Took the wind right out of our sails!!

We had a fun lunch up on the bluff. There were several picnic benches and we had a great view. Ahead of us we could see the rock formations and then we'd look to the right and it was all fog-shrouded. And SEAGULLS! Little buggers. Just waiting for someone to drop something. They'd walk right up to our table and squawk at us. One family mistakenly threw some food to a couple and the rest descended like a cloud. They immediately had 20 birds surrounding them and flying in low. One of the little girls started screaming and the dad had to get up and chase them off. Lesson: NEVER feed the gulls!

After lunch we drove to Cannon Beach and walked through the downtown area. Wandered through a few stores and a gallery. By this time I was so tired, I could barely keep my eyes open. Too much fresh air I guess. We piled back into the car and headed home. Since we missed the opportunity to stop for drinking water on the way up, we stopped on the way back. Again, it just tastes like water. I didn't dump out my bottled water, but I did top it off with the spring water. I can't tell any difference. And it's coming through metal pipes so it has to be picking up stuff from that, right? Anyway, we had a really fun day and came home worn out.

Carol started a movie but I'd already seen it so I came up to my room to finish listening to a book I was almost done with. Sat on my bed playing with my electronic solitaire game and listening to my book. Went to bed early and slept until 7:30 this morning. Rolled over and went back to sleep until 8:30. PERFECT day! Now I have to clean out the 'frig and clean my bathroom. So much for the perfect day.

Carol's making pancakes so I'd better hurry downstairs and look like I'm going to do something besides just talk to you guys. Hey, hang in there with that crappy weather you're having and start planning a trip to OR!!

Until next time.

It's too hot in Dublin!

Shoot, I keep looking at the temps in Dublin and you can have them! The weather hear seriously turns on a dime. It was so cold just 3 nights ago that I actually closed all the windows in the house and turned on the heater for half an hour. Then the next day it was in the high 70's. No sweater, coat or jacket needed. It's supposed to warm up this weekend (which means low 80's) and you know how these Pacific Northwesterners hate that heat!! :)



Eric found a specialist in CO and flew there last week to meet with him. He had a workup done and has decided to have this doctor do his surgery. He's scheduled it for Oct 23 and they've asked me to come home the 29th (when they hope he'll be able to fly home) to help take care of him and hopefully enable the grandkids to have some normalcy. Stacey's sister, Jill, will be watching them the week Stacey's in CO with Eric. If he's not able to fly home that soon, then I'll fly to CO to help her there.



Cal's also scheduling cataract surgery sometime in November so it will be a busy winter for me. I don't know if I'll have any time left for the holidays this year, but that's alright. It may be 2009 before I'm able to get home to see any of the rest of you. Just think how happy you'll be to see me!



Heather's mom is visiting so I had dinner with them last weekend. They'd invited me to go sightseeing with them and I was going to ... but my legs and feet were really sore! On Saturday the ladies from work came over to scrap. Marletta and Debbie were the only ones who came. Audrey and Sandy had partied the night before and weren't up to it. :0 )

Marletta brought a KILLER spinach dip. OMIGOSH. Heart attack on a chip. She made it in a crockpot and asked if she could leave it here because they were heading out for vacation as soon as she got home. I sacrificed and said "sure!". I had enough to share with Heather's family, Gary, and Peggy. That stuff was GOOD. The others have no idea what they missed.

As for the album Marletta taught me to make, I love it! I'm making one about Ellie right now and I'm gathering Colin photos for the next one. It's the perfect size for all those miscellaneous pictures that you want to keep but may not be just right for an album. Or even better, it's good for those pictures that are special and you want to give them their own "space". If I can figure out a way to describe how to make it, I'll post it. So flippin' easy. You'll need 3 pieces of cardstock and 5 pieces of patterned paper. Let me know when you've got those gathered, and I'll go on to step 2.

I have to close early. I need to finish the book I'm reading so I can give it to Peggy. She's leaving for Austin early Saturday morning and I got her started on a series and this is the next book in the series.

We're doing the Siebel testing this week because the "train the trainers" classes start next week. I've been putting in a lot of hours this past week and we didn't even get to the other stuff Peg was supposed to be showing me! YIKES. Next Thursday starts my first 'on-call' week.

Carol and I were talking last night about the people we used to work with that have had life changing events since we've left. One lady lost her daughter; another lost her husband and 3 others have been diagnosed with cancer. One of those had surgery for colon cancer and we're hearing that it was successful in that it was all removed. Incredible.

You all have a great week and we'll chat again later.

Summer days are shortening ...

It used to be full daylight at 5:30 am, but now it's getting on to 6:00 - 6:30 before it's fully light outside. Winter is approaching!! I'm being told that the winter days are short and the nights are very long. We'll see. Will I become a whiney baby? is it possible that even *I* will tire of the rain?? Hard to imagine!


Just heard today of a former co-worker who has cancer. I hate to hear that!! Someone who retired when the building closed. I swear, I am NEVER going to retire.


Last week was Bunco Thursday. We were short a person at the last minute (Carol forgot she had to take some medicine prior to some lab work on Friday, so needed to stay home) so I asked Carlos if he'd fill in. Being the good sport that he is, he agreed! Bless his heart. So here's Carlos playing Bunco with a room full of women. The only thing that would have made it perfect is for him to get a Bunco and have to wear the bright pink fuzzy scarf!! He had a good time and he's agreed to be a reserve player -- as long as there are no cats at the hostess's house. Highly allergic--and cats have a 6th sense about who doesn't want them around!


Carol's oldest son and her daughter came up on Saturday and the 3 of them took off for Seattle. To see an A's game, of all things! How crazy is that. They're coming back this way on Thursday, then heading off for home (home being Livermore) So I have 2 weeks without her around. Amazing how quickly we can get used to other people in our lives! So how am I spending this "alone time"?


I got 2 scrapbook pages done. Turned out REALLY cute! Was able to use up 10 of my Hawaii photos. Ready to do 2 more -- again with the HI photos. Trouble is, I can't find the ones I want. These pages will be perfect for the airport shots Stacey took. It's possible they're at home, but do I want to wait that long? Should I just reorder the 2 or 3 I want, along with the other 30 or 40 Stacey just posted? Aaaggghhh


There are several scrappers here so I'm having a group over on Saturday to play. Marletta has a really cool fold-out album that I want her to show me how to make. So, Sandy Benson, Audrey Guest, Marletta and another lady I don't know are coming. Jeanine Brown is maybe coming .. depending on their plans for the weekend. I mentioned that I'm a "copier", can't come up with an original idea to save myself, and Marletta told me about a web site called pagemaps.com. My kind of web site!


Jeanine showed us some cards her sister made, sewing geometric shapes with very fine silver and/or gold thread. I remember in my geometry class we had to use string and nails to do the same thing. I think some years ago there was a resurgence of "string art" in the craft community. This uses black shiny cardstock, pearlized with special paints and then sewing on it with the thread. Absolutely beautiful!! Marletta found the book and made two of them last weekend. She said she did one in a couple of hours. They could be framed they're so pretty.


I've read about 9 books since I've been here (not bad when you consider the 2 or 3 weeks I spent working 10 and 12 hour days) and I've listened to at least that many. I've been downloading books from the public library. Got hooked on a series by Kate Wilhelm. There were 10 in that series and I just downloaded 5 more by her. These are non-series and a couple of them are science fiction. She's a local author and the settings so far have been Oregon. I've enjoyed them all!

I've also been busy with my paperback swap. Just shipped off a book on tape (got me 2 credits!) and I just ordered 8 books with the credits I'd already accumulated. I'm reading the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich so I was able to fill in some of the gaps. I prefer to read a series back-to-back.


Lynne sent some photos from the reception at Puget Sound so let's see if I can post a couple.



Steve and Amber cutting their cake. They had their wedding clothes on earlier for pictures, but got comfie right after!






Lynne took this one of me because she wanted everyone to see that, yes, I take a book with me EVERYWHERE. I'll have you know that the few minutes it took to snap 4 shots of me standing by the driftwood with Puget Sound behind me, were enough to give me a slight sunburn. Yes, Heather, I KNOW I should have put on some sunblock, but I didn't plan to go out in the sun!

Gary's Aerobed gave up the ghost this weekend so he asked me to go with him to look for a new mattress. Took him over to SleepCountry and my buddies over there set him up. He's getting a new queen bed delivered on Thursday. Much more comfortable than the floor!

Oh! Melanie Prestidge arrived! I saw her today, but no time to talk as she was heading to a meeting. She said to say hello to everyone ... HELLO! (for those of you who have NO idea who that is, she's one of the supervisor's from Pleasanton who transferred up here)

Well, kids, that's it for now. I keep trying to be less boring, but this is all you get! I admire your perseverence to keep on reading. All I have left to talk about is laundry and housecleaning so I'd better move along. Stay tuned ... you never know what will pop up!

Pat Winnie, this one's for you!

I got an email this morning from Pat Winnie. For those of you who don't know Pat, she's a friend and former co-worker from Pleasanton. She said it has been 21 days, we need more blog! It made me literally laugh out loud, so here I am. I think part of it must be that you read about my mundane life and breathe a sigh of relief that yours isn't so dull. Again, I'm performing a service for you! And what thanks do I get??


I said I'd tell you about my trip back home back in July. I went home for Stacey's 40th birthday (my daughter-in-law). On Friday, Carlos dropped me off at the MAX train station ... I wanted to leave at 3:00, but he kept getting involved in one thing or another and it was closer to 3:30 by the time we left. It's an hour and a half to the airport and I was going to be cutting it close. Naturally when we got to the transfer station (blue line to the red line) the next train sat there for what seemed like an eternity but was more likely just 5 minutes. Finally made it to the airport and the line to go through security was LO-O-O-NG! Now I'm nervous. (Seriously, how nervous can someone be who's had the experience of flying with no money, ID or credit cards?) All for naught. I made it to the plane with time to spare. Trip home uneventful. And it took me an entire paragraph to tell you that! LOL


Stacey's party was really nice. Eric had blown up a lot of pictures of her from each decade (1 to 10; 10 to 20; 20 to 30 and 30 to 40) and had them strung and hung all over the house. A great day spent with family and friends. Lots of good food and even better company. The next morning I was on an early flight back 'home'. VERY short trip ... too short. Little Miss Ellie was very shy around me. I think it's as much the haircolor change as anything else.


Carol picked me up at the train station and we spent the next hour or so looking for a farm where we could pick our own fruit. It wasn't worth finding! The farmer spent at least 20 minutes talking about his loser son and another 20 sharing his political views. We finally picked some blueberries and raspberries (which weren't all that good) and left.


This past weekend I drove up to Washington. My sister, Lynne, lives in south Everett. Her daughter, Amber, got married the previous week (08/08/08) and they were having a reception on Puget Sound. It's about a 3.5 hour drive. Not bad! I used Maggie (Carol's nickname for the Magellan GPS) and chose "most use of freeways". Completely bypassed Seattle by way of Renton and who knows what all. I know for a fact that I could have just stayed on I-5 all the way but wanted to see where Maggie would take me. It was all good until we hit this 2 lane highway that is used by every trucker who drives through that state. Speaking of which, if you're ever driving in WA be sure to obey all speed limits. The WA highway patrol is out in full force all the time. I saw at least 3 people getting tickets.


Since I'd just completed my on-line traffic school (I told you about that, yes?) I was not looking for another ticket. I got one in CA last April about 2 weeks before moving up here. Signed up for traffic school and then forgot all about it. Had to request an exension and finally completed the darned thing. You have to print out the test, take it to a notary public, fill it out in front of them, have it notarized and then mail it back to the traffic school. If you pass, they send you a certificate which then has to be mailed to the courthouse. I sent it express mail just to be safe. Do NOT want to go through that again. That was my first ticket in 30 years so I figured I was well overdue. :0 )


Anyway, back to WA. I took Friday off and drove up. Got there around 2:30 - 3:00. I took Lynne and David to dinner. Ate at a really nice Italian place that Lynne said has excellent food and you never have to wait for a table. Yeah, right! There must have been 3 soccer teams having their team party! She left her name and phone number and we walked down the street to Starbucks while we waited! The food WAS good (garlic, artichoke, spinach and parmesan calzone-YUM). On our way home, Lynne turned to me and said "so, WHEN are you going home?" Huh -I had thought I was going to Amber's reception ... but ...


We laughed. She was thinking that she hoped I'd be there long enough to help her with her computer, but that's NOT the way it sounded. I warned her that it was going into my blog. I now have witnesses for how she mistreats me.


Of course we won't talk about how David and I laughed ourselves silly when Lynne was retelling the story of how Joan and I played a dirty trick on her. Lynne had showed us a house a block or two from hers that she admired and she really wanted to meet the lady who lived there so she could see the inside. We told her that we'd gone right up to the front door and told her how much our sister loved her house and she invited us to bring her over the next day for tea. WELL! She was so excited she could hardly stand it. Yes, I know it was mean. Unfortunately, at the time we thought it was hysterical. We finally broke down and told her because we couldn't hold in the laughter, and to be honest, I couldn't stand to see her so excited about a lie! She was heartbroken. She got the last laugh because she DID meet the lady, and she did get to go in and see how she'd decorated. Guess she showed us!

Going to Amber's reception was a bit of a challenge. David and Lynne have a TomTom GPS. It said we had reached our destination when we were on a gravel road facing a stand of trees with a driveway on our right and a highway on our left. No park in sight. I said TomTom is pretty dumbdumb; David said several things I can't repeat. He started calling it the "bitch in a box". Then Lynne told him we're trying to get to Kayak Point. Turns out David knew right where it is and TomTom had taken us way out of the way. Thus his epithet.

The reception was really nice. We were at Kayak Point park, right on the water and the weather was BEAUTIFUL. It had been so flippin' hot the day before (much cooler in WA than OR, though) and while I was basking in the shade and sea breezes it got up to 103 in Hillsboro! I know this because when I got home, Cal had IM'd me that it was 103 in Hillsboro and he would be Oregone! LOL Lynne took a picture of me holding a book with the sea behind me (yes, I was reading whenever the opportunity presented itself) just so people could see I was really there and I'm crazy about reading. Or maybe just crazy.

As for work ... I finally got access to the T drive (which is the telecom drive where all our files are stored) and Carlos told me to look at the on-call schedule. I'M ON IT!!!! I wrote Peggy and told her to picture my knees knocking, my hands shaking, my heart pounding and my eyes tearing up. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. I know that we can get alerts (via our cell phones) that we have to "clear" and sometimes we have to call the vendor to fix things. She assured me that Donna is flying out that week to train me and for me not to worry. (Sure!)


I'm scheduled for 9/11 to 9/18 .. so every one of you had better say prayers for me that week. Being on call is a 24hr proposition and I think we're covering all 3 sites. Thank goodness it's just once every 8 weeks. I'm getting stuck with New Year's day but Peggy's got Christmas day.


Oh, I also need to let you know that even though I originally planned to come home Labor Day week, I've rescheduled. Eric is perhaps going to have elective surgery on September 24, so I'm going to come home that week instead. He has Chiara malformation (something for those of you who are intrepid, to look up) also known as Arnold-Chiara malformation. He's meeting with his neurosurgeon on the 19th and then he'll decide if he is going ahead with the surgery.

In one of life's odd twists (or as I like to say .. God's little coincidences) one of the girls I work with has the same condition and she had the surgery 3 years ago!! She gave me all her contact information so Eric could get in touch with her to ask whatever. He's emailed her a couple times. I'm sure being able to talk to someone who's successfully been through the surgery was helpful.

Calvin has to have eye surgery and he's talking about maybe scheduling it for the same week so I'll be home. Hopefully not on the same day! You can see that will be one busy week for me but I hope I'll be able to touch base with some of you. I plan to drive down the 20th and I'll have to drive back up the 27th.

I'm actually supposed to be working on some files for work and here it is 9:30! I've got to scoot, so behave yourselves and stay tuned!

FTD? Not!

Where does the time go? I don't feel all that busy, but when I log in to blog, it shows that it has been way too long since I've talked to you. It's that whole time speeding up as we age thing, isn't it!


So, in keeping with my long tradition of celebrating my birthday for most of the month of July, after calling Eric and Stacey to see if they sent the lilies, they sort of let it slip that they did send SOMETHING but it would be arriving on Saturday, my actual birthday. On Sunday I called them to let them know that nope, it didn't arrive! On Monday I let them know that nope, it still hadn't arrived.

Now Stacey is ticked. She had me go to the FTD web site so I could see what I wasn't getting .. a really cute bonzai tree kit. Not only is she ticked because I didn't get it, but she had paid EXTRA to have it delivered on Saturday! Between them, she and Eric had made 4 or 5 calls to customer service and got different answers each time. They offered to knock $20 off the delivery price. Yeah, I don't think so. Totally fed up by now, she told them to cancel the order and she wanted a refund. They said they'd send a confirmation ... no confirmation. They hadn't responded to her emails. She was venting on Instant Messenger and I said what she needed to do is write to the president of the company! I found his name on the 'net and she found the email address. So we BOTH wrote to him.

Here's what I wrote: "Dear Mr. Soenen:
You don't know me, but I am ... or was ... a potential customer. Along with the 20 or 30 friends, and friends of friends, who will be hearing negative comments about your company.

My son and daughter-in-law ordered a plant from your web site to celebrate my birthday. This was especially important because I've recently moved 500 miles away, leaving all my family behind. Stacey tells me she paid extra money to have the gift delivered on Saturday, July 19, because that's the date of my actual birthday. An especially loving touch, don't you think?

Unfortunately, I have not received the gift. It was not delivered on Saturday. Today is Monday, and I've still not received the plant that was ordered from FTD. Now, seriously, Mr. Soenen, if you had ordered a plant or flowers to be delivered to your mother or another family member by a certain date, and you had paid extra to have that happen, wouldn't you be upset if the delivery was delayed?

Mr. Soenen, I happen to work in a customer service industry and I know how important it is to provide stellar customer service. I would have to say from personal experience that your company falls far short of that goal. It so happens that I did receive a beautiful set of lilies on Friday from ProFlowers. They arrived in bud form and I've enjoyed watching them bloom day by day. I can assure you that my friends will hear from me that if they want to get timely delivery of beautiful flowers or plants, they should go to ProFlowers.com.

As if this situation weren't bad enough, I understand Stacey has been getting the runaround from your customer service representatives. No one seems to actually care that there is a problem and they do not appear to be stepping up to the plate to take care of it. I did read on the internet that FTD.com flourished under your leadership. Well, if the customer service stays at this level, it will begin wilting before too long!

Not only was I disappointed that their surprise was ruined by your company but I'm disappointed that a company as well known as FTD is so lacking in courtesy and service. There are other companies competing for my dollars, and rigt now ... they're winning!"

Stacey got a call right away from their customer service manager (at least that's what she said her title is) with an apology and assurances of a refund. She also called me and apologized on behalf of all the employees at FTD for spoiling my birthday. Uh huh. Too little, too late. No real effort was made to do the right thing until we wrote our letters. They should have offered a refund to Stacey right off the bat, or at least offered to resend the plant with no extra charge for the Saturday delivery that never happened! Personally, I doubt that I'll be using their services anytime soon.

I should write them again, but this time with a thank you! Because of their screwup, Eric and Stacey sent me a different gift ... I just got it today and I LOVE it!!! I got a digital frame. Never saw a use for them until I saw someone at work with one ... it scrolls through dozens of pictures while taking up the space of one. COOL! And the best part of all, Stacey had it preloaded with pictures! I have it set up in the kitchen right now, but I can hardly wait to take it in to work.

We just got home from dinner with Heather and Tami. I'd told them that the Farmhouse is apparently known for it's prime rib. I knew that they both like prime rib. SO, Tami said Friday night is prime rib at the Farmhouse...did Carol and I want to go?? Heck, yeah. Okay ... here's the fun part. I hadn't actually tried the prime rib, because I don't particularly care for it! Carol, Heather and Tami had prime rib and I had Yankee pot roast (it was really good!)

Tami's going to kill me for this, but I like living on the edge. The 3 of them were having adult beverages and after drinking 3/4 of her Mai Tai, Tami noticed she had a bug in her drink!! Not one, not two, but THREE! She said she saw them fall into the glass when the bartender was making the drink but figured it was something from the garnish and she didn't want to be troublesome. Nope. Turns out they were fruit flies and there were 4 more in the bottle (the bottle was mostly empty) I know this shouldn't seem funny, but it was hilarious. We got more jokes out of this one incident than any 4 people have a right to.

Well, it's time for bed and I have much to do before this head will hit the pillow. I must close for now, but I still have to talk about my trip home last weekend for Stacey's birthday. Why is it I feel like I have nothing to say and once I start typing I can't seem to stop? Alright ... I heard all of those snide comments out there!

Stay tuned ...

Birthday Bash - sort of

Lots to catch up on. On Thursday night we had our first Bunco gathering! What fun!! Gathered together 12 crazy ladies and spent the night getting to know one another and playing Bunco. Tami actually started the stupid thing (I did NOT say 'stupid') and she brought in 3 ladies who work with her. The rest are Farmers transplants so this gives us a chance to get together outside of work and reinforce the CA Support Group. :0 )

We decided instead of buying prizes, we would just play for $$. Money fits all sizes, right? In spite of 6 different categories for prizes, including most LOSSES, for heaven's sake, I still did not win anything.

Audrey was whining at first when I was going over the rules of play because she said it sounded too hard. If you've ever played Bunco, you know it's harder to explain than to play. Once we got started, she was all into it! We'll be playing once a month and rotating houses so everyone gets a chance to play hostess. It really was a lot of fun and everyone got along famously. We have a couple of sub's (Tami's daughter, Heaven, and Sandy Benson's daughter, Chelsea) already and had to make use of them the first night.

I took a vacation day on Friday because I wasn't feeling well. Let's just say I was "indisposed". I may have had a bug though because I kept falling asleep and I'd wake up all hot and sweaty, then I'd fall asleep again and wake up cold. Also woke up several times because the friggin' phone kept ringing. The security guards at work called at least 4 times. They were having phone issues and for some reason they have MY number so they called me. I finally told them I'm not in the office so please call Carlos. They felt bad, but I assured them it was no problem, I'm on duty 24/7.

I slept in Saturday ... what better way to start off celebrating getting older! I read in bed for several hours (pure indulgence) and then walked across the street to the mall to get my white roots touched up. I told her "LIGHT brown with caramel highlights". She did a really good job with the highlights but the brown is NOT light. I know it will fade after several washings but it startles me when I look at it. It's better than the red it had gone back to though. There are still red highlights when I'm in the sun, but I had those naturally (in the old days) so that doesn't bother me.

After my hair was done .. I really liked how she did my bangs, but why is it one can never duplicate what the hairdresser does???, Tami called and asked if I wanted to go with her to see The Dark Knight. Heck, yeah! There was a long line (who knew?) so we had to sit on the far right and sort of close to the screen but it was a good movie. NOT the Batman I grew up with in the comics, but the acting was great.

She wanted to take me to Rose's for a piece of cake afterward, but they were closed. Then we went looking for a Starbucks, but the one we found was also closed so we opted for Shari's. When we walked in they had the place all decorated with balloons and streamers so Tami said she'd called ahead and asked them to decorate for my birthday! LOL We shared that with our waitress and she said "oh, it's your birthday? Well, you get a free piece of pie then". GREAT! I had my favorite .. lemon meringue .. and we were all good. Tami and I joked that in future we'll go in on our birthdays and ask them to box up our piece of pie. Ok .. WE think we're funny!

Today (Sunday) Tami, Heather, Carol and I took the Max train to the airport. I wanted to see how long it takes (about 1.5 hr) and exactly where it drops one off. Practically at the front door! It really is a slick way to get to the airport. I'm going to fly home next weekend, just for the weekend .. coming in Friday night, leaving Sunday morning .. so taking the train in will be ideal. You can't beat the price .. it will be $1.75 to ride up to the airport, and $1.75 to ride back. This is a picture of Tami and Heather having fun on the train. :0)

We bought all day tickets for all lines, which includes bus travel and trolley too, I believe, and it was only $4.75. On the way home we stopped at the Sunday market which is pretty much a huge craft fair. Then we stopped at the "Sand in the City" display where they had sand carvings related to an organization called Kids on the Block that does free puppet shows for schools all around the area. These are 3 of my favorites. The back view shows it's the Moletel, the front view is the Whack a Mole game with a huge mallet and some moles popped up, and the 3rd one shows a mole diving into the ground with his butt in the air. Cute! That line running across him is just the shadow of the rope to keep people off the sand. I'll post some more pictures one of these days.

We found an indoor mall with a food court so we had something to eat and then rode the train back home. A really fun day!

OH! I found out the lilies were from Calvin. He just neglected to put his name on the order. I didn't suspect him at all because in 40 years he's given me flowers once or twice.

See? aren't they pretty? When they arrived they were mostly buds and you can see there are still 3 or 4 buds that haven't opened. If you're thinking the flowers are big, you're right. They're HUGE. Very fragrant and colorful. A nice surprise.

I had a lot of birthday wishes and I want to thank all of you for making my day so special! Even far away I felt loved. Thank you SO much. Getting older isn't so bad when you have friends and family to share it with.

It's way past my bedtime now so I've GOT to scoot. Hang tight and I'll write more next week, I'm sure.

Who dun it?

When I got home from work, there was a box from ProFlowers waiting for me! Inside was a vase with 4 stems of lilies. SEVERAL buds on each stem. Some deep purple and some white. The only problem is, there was no name! I don't know who sent them. I'm assuming they're for my birthday, but I don't know who to thank.

I called Eric and Stacey because that's something they'd do. They said they sent something but this isn't it.

So ... whoever you are THANK YOU! They're beautiful.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about the fun we had playing Bunco.

Sizzlin' Summer Days

It's hard to find the time to blog so I'm using my lunch break to start this one. If you're getting an RSS feed does it tell you each tiime I make changes to the blog or just when I've posted one? Hmmm

I really want to complain about the heat because it's so muggy, but since the vast majority of you have been sweltering under the hot CA sun, I haven't got the nerve. Just remember, I'm on the THIRD floor!

This past weekend Carol and I drove up to Multnomah Falls. It's about an hour away from us and a nice drive. Since we were stupid enough to do it on the same day that we were attending an afternoon picnic, we didn't have time to stop along the way to check out other things that look interesting. We did pick up some brochures about river cruises and we will probably look into that.

The falls were beautiful. My co-worker, Peggy (from Austin), went there when she was here for her "tour of duty". She came to help us get our act together, so to speak. Anyway, she and her daughter drove to falls and she showed me pictures on her camcorder from the TOP of the falls to the parking lot below. WOW She said it took her about 2 hours to complete the climb to the top and her legs were really sore the next day. Peggy said it amazed her how many people were doing the climb to the top with strollers and carrying babies. Even older people. You know, people in their 60's! Hmph

When Carol and I got there, we took some photos and I suggested we climb up to the bridge because Peggy had said it wasn't too hard to get there. The path is paved all the way and it's a series of switchbacks. Lots of switchbacks. The incline isn't too bad and we were walking at a leisurely pace. When we got to the bridge there were a LOT of people standing on it and this nice gentleman, who was speaking a foreign language to his children (German, I think), looked at me and said "how many people do you think it will hold before it collapses?" Laughing, I said thanks for pointing THAT out!! He laughed and said "don't worry. I'll go first!" I told him I'd wait until he got off the bridge before I ventured on. The bridge is very solid, by the way.

We went a little bit further up than the bridge but neither of us wanted to attempt the climb to the top. The sign said it's only a mile up, but with all the switchbacks, that has to add some distance, right? We've agreed that our goal for next year will be to climb all the way up! By this time next year you will all have forgotten we said that.

Heather and Tami had organized a "We're Not in CA Anymore" potluck picnic for all the CA transplants up here. So when we got home from the falls, Carol had to go shopping for a chair--I ended up getting one too because it has a sunshade!! and we had to prepare our food for the picnic. She made my pistachio pudding salad .. nothing too difficult there! .. and I made a taco salad. We had to take our dining room table (my 5' folding table), Tami and Heather's chairs (remember, they were my living room furniture for the month of May) and I took my broken chair (it's just one of the pads on the bottom that broke...it's still usable) in case someone would need it. It's just about 4:00 and even hotter than it was earlier in the day!! We got in her car and it was 115 degrees! Sheesh.

By the time we got to the park (Noble Woods park by Heather's house), they had tables all set up and food ready. Wow. Sandy Benson and her hubby and 2 kids were there, as well as Heather and Tami, Audrey Guest and her son Brett and Steve Dix came later. We had a really good time and agreed we need to do this again. We did laugh because some people were trying to get us to have a sign-up sheet for the food. I sent an email to everyone saying that the idea of a potluck is just that -- potLUCK so no sign-up's were necessary. Turns out we had only one duplicate dish (potato salad) and that was a good thing because one was WITH onions and the other was WITHOUT!! YES! (I hate onions) All in all a very nice weekend.

I did spoil myself this week. On Monday I strolled over to the Streets of Tanasbourne and wandered into the Brighton shop. I purposely left my $$ at home so I wouldn't be tempted to buy anything. Didn't matter. They have several items that are being "retired" so they were on sale for 30% off. I really splurged. I had them hold a wallet for me and they (naturally) showed me the purse that goes with it. I laughingly said if the purse is still there when I go back then I was meant to have it.

I also wandered over to a beauty supply to see if they had nail polish remover and if they could tell me where a good hair salon is. Huh. They have one right there on the premises. So I made an appointment for Saturday afternoon to touch up my white roots!

Thunder and lightning, oh my!

Sometime early this morning -- 1:00?? 2:00?? I was jolted awake by a loud clap of thunder and I heard pouring rain. It's kind of neat being up on the 3rd floor because I can hear the rain hitting the leaves in the trees. I'm actually up higher than two of the trees on our property. I was too tired to open my eyes but I could tell when lightning flashed because the room would get a bit brighter for a few seconds. I found it to be very soothing and went back to sleep.

Spoke to Audrey about it this morning and she was exhausted because she'd been woken up by the storm and Brett had come into her room and her dog was upset by the storm. She said she thought of me because she suspected I was enjoying it (I was!) You can see that we could both tell the same story but with a different twist!

The sprinklers just went on. I swear, they would run even if it were pouring rain! There is no lack of water up here. I understand some of you are being restricted on your water usage. They need it to fight all the fires. Your "smog" level is increasing too. Boy, did I move up here at just the right time! (whatever!)

Carlos left this afternoon to go home for the weekend. I dropped him off at the Max train. It's about an hour train ride to the Portland airport. Carol and I are going to try it out after she gets back. Then when I go home, I can just have someone drop me at the station. There's one just minutes away from here. It's Portland's BART.

I've scheduled my next vacation for August 29 through September 5, so I'll be home over Labor Day weekend. We'll have to celebrate Eric and Brendan's birthdays early (Eric's is 9/11 and Brendan's is 9/12). I also need to squeeze in visits with several of you! And clean out the refrigerator. It's become a joke up here to say that I have to go home every 6 weeks to clean out the 'frig. Most of the women I talk with can't imagine leaving their husbands alone in the house for long periods of time. Cal's probably gone back to eating out most of the time.

The hustle and bustle of the past several weeks has slowed down but I'm still very busy. This next wave that's moving over on the 11th is mostly the Commercial department and there has been nothing but confusion. First we thought they needed DID numbers. Then they didn't. Now we're back to yes they do. Of course, I've been making all the changes each time so then I have to go back and undo the changes and now I'm having to change them AGAIN. I brought my laptop home so I can work on it some this weekend. It's not really like working when you do it at home...it's more like getting caught up or getting ahead. Doing it at my own pace.

I need to find a narrow shelf that will fit on top of the table I'm using for my laptop. Then I could put my flatscreen TV on the shelf and use it as a monitor. I'm getting used to using dual monitors! It's so darned handy when you can move spreadsheets to one monitor and open other programs on the laptop. I need to buy a video cable but that should be all I need. I also brought my zip drive home to clean up some of my disks. Stuff I've been wanting to get to but keep putting off.

Tomorrow is housecleaning day though. Need to wash floors and vacuum. Just unpacked Carol's vacuum so I need to put it to good use. And clean out the refrigerator. Are you seeing a theme here?

I finally got to watch one of my Netflix CD's. I've been watching the Britcom series "As Time Goes By" with Judy Dench and just finished season 6. Such fun! SO .. I mailed it off yesterday and they received it today and I should have my next one Saturday. But here's the fun part. Last week or maybe the week before, I turned down a side street to cut over to Cornell so I could find an ATM machine and as I'm driving down this "new" road (new to me) off to the right I see a building with a HUGE Netflix sign. They are right here in Hillsboro!! I'm hoping it's one of their distribution centers. How cool is that!

There are a ton of fireworks going off outside. I can imagine our cat, Tigger, is going nuts at home. He's the original scaredy cat. Every 4th of July he runs around the house scrunching himself under the sofa (and he's not small) and then running to one of the bedrooms to hide under a bed. You can't hold him because he digs his claws into your arm as if his life is in mortal danger. Poor thing.

Well, it's 9:20 and the streetlights just went on so I'd better close and get myself organized for tomorrow.

Stay tuned!

Return to normalcy?

Is there such a thing as "normal"? This week has been going fairly well, I must say. AND there are no moves this weekend because of the holiday. So we all get 3 days off!! HUZZAH! Saturday is already a special day because my bed will be delivered. Ta DA! (or as Colin used to say, TA da)

We just had a brief but intense rainfall. The sun is out, it's barely overcast, 84 degrees outside and it starts to pour down HUGE raindrops. I LOVE IT! I told Cal (Yahoo Instant Messenger) that it wasn't enough to wash off my car and I need to find a carwash. He always washed my car at home. He said, and I quote, "maybe Heather can wash it when she checks your tire pressure". He's now trying to get out of it by saying he was kidding. The joke here is that I am completely clueless and uninterested when it comes to cars and their maintenance. Heather actually called Cal some time back and told him my tires were looking pretty low and he should check them. Thus the reference to her checking my tires. Now he's in trouble! Heather doesn't always read my blog, but I know Tami does!!

I got the cutest card from my sister Carol. Welcome to your new home .. and it's handmade. It has some metal elements that I'll just keep for my own scrapbooking. :) Who knows where it will end up next?

Carol is visiting CA this week. I'm hoping when she's ready to drive back home she'll be willing to stop by my house and pick up the things I left in Brendan's trunk. I think my missing Daytimer calendar pages are in that pile of stuff. I also need the clock that Justin Barber gave me. OH! I forgot to tell you about that.

I had to post this before I finished because we've been having wireless problems with our internet connection. I've been piggybacking on someone else's network. Gary just had me switch to ours because he discovered that the connection into the modem was loose. Oops!

Anyway, back to Justin Barber. When I was there for our last day in Pleasanton (more on that in future posts) I went to say good-bye to Justin. As our current Toasmaster president, he and I worked together quite a bit on club business. AND he has the same first name as my youngest, they're around the same age and both graduated from SF State. Anyway, he handed me this sweet little pink bag and said "this is for you". For ME??? Awwww, shucks. Inside was this absolutely adorable pink ceramic clock, about 2" wide and 3" high, in the shape of a telephone!! Since I was known around the office as the Phone Queen it was so perfect! He said his mom owns a gift shop in Walnut Creek and he'd gone it to say hello and this caught his eye so he told her he had to get it because he knew just the person to give it to. I really love it and want to put it in my office but being me ... I put it in the trunk of Brendan's car with all the other last minute stuff I was clearing out of the office. It will be like getting for the first time all over again! We have no clocks in our office and I was just telling Carlos today that in spite of having the time on our computers and our phones I still want a clock. Problem solved! Thanks, Justin!

Work is slowing down and I actually have a 3 day weekend. WOO HOO!! I am so going to relax. I debated about going home for the weekend but that wouldn't be very restful and the one thing I need right now is some down time. I'm hoping to schedule a week around Labor Day. I'll ask Adrian tomorrow and see what he says.

I'm looking at my temperature windows on my desktop and it says Dublin and Hillsboro are both 80 degrees. I bet this 80 degrees is cooler than that 80 degrees! So weird. I would swear that 95 feels hotter here (maybe that was pre-air conditioning) but right now there's a decent breeze and it's actually a cool breeze. I have my window wide open and the a/c is off. I do have the ceiling fan going though, just to move the air around.

I'm going to close now and enjoy this restful period. Birds are chirping outside, the breeze is blowing and it's still bright out. At 8:04 pm. Huh. You all take care and stay tuned!

Who knew??

So much to catch up on! I've probably lost about half my readers by now. Unless you're doing an RSS feed, you won't know I'm updating the blog .. unless I send out an email to that effect. But that kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

Let me explain why I've been so negligent. We have started working. The first month was so sweet .. no real worries, not a lot to do. HAH I have worked 3 straight weeks of 10 to 12 hour days -- which we were expecting, but it's one thing to talk about it and another thing to live through it. Poor Carlos had it even worse. We had a software program that wasn't working properly so he and Scott had one night that they got maybe 2 or 3 hours sleep. Sure glad *I'm* not the Avaya engineer!!

I'll have to backtrack through the next several postings but I'm sure I've forgotten a lot of what I wanted to tell you. I actually "talk" to you in my head, I just don't get it all down on 'paper'.

Gary finally got moved up here and since they wouldn't let us put him on the lease until he was actually here, he made an appointment with the office for the 3 of us to go in and sign a new lease. The first night, we were too late (I think I was the one who got home too late) and the office was closed. So we went back the next night. Keep in mind I'm having to run home from work, get this done, and run back. The second night the girls there didn't know what we were talking about! They pulled out his file and said, Oh, we still have to run your credit check, can you come back. *sigh* The 3rd time we go back, this sweet young girl says very meekly, "uh, Mr. Davis, we have some personal information". So, Carol and I wander into the reception area and hang out while they talk to Gary. About 6 minutes later he comes in and says GUESS WHAT! I'M A CRIMINAL! Seems they found a Gary Davis who had been convicted of manslaughter and battery back in Indiana. Huh. I told Chai (pronounced Shay) that really -- something like this ... they should tell US! She looked at me very sweetly and said "I don't think legally I'm allowed to tell you!"

We now introduce Gary as "our roommate, Gary, the mass murderer". Needless to say, further research showed that he was NOT the same Gary Davis. We jokingly told him that when we go back to sign the lease, if there are a lot of cop cars around, keep walking. And if they pick him up, he will be assured of a roof over his head, regular meals and clothing will be provided! We went back one more time, got the lease signed and it's all good.

Hey! I just heard thunder!!! It has been flippin' hot the past few days (trust me .. 90 here is HOT, especially on the 3rd floor) and it's just starting to cool down. Even though right now at 7:16 pm we are 10 degrees hotter than Dublin (74 there, 84 here) It started getting overcast this afternoon and someone said it will cool down later this week.

I got my A/C just in time. I bought a small window unit but it was too heavy for me to lift into the cart so last Thursday or Friday (the days just melt into one another) Gary went to Costco with me and loaded it into the cart and then carried it upstairs for me. We were both too tired to do anything with it that night .. must have been Friday .. and he had to work Saturday, but I didn't. I decided to see how much of it I could put together and I managed to get it all put together and into the window all by myself! TA DA. The funny thing is, after we left for Costco, Carol saw a commercial (probably for car insurance) where a guy is putting one of these in his window and he drops it out the window and it lands on his car. She had said to me just a few days earlier, aren't you afraid you might drop it on your car? I park in the driveway and it's right below my window -- two stories down. Very funny.

I have it set on 80 and it runs quite a bit! It's on energy saver so it cycles off for 10 minutes and sometimes it stays off longer than that, but the difference between the temp in my room and temp in the hallway is amazing! It has to be at least 20 degrees difference. I was dieing up here the last time the temp's were in the 90's. Everyone said it's only a few days a year, but I told them if I only use this thing 3 days a year, it will be worth every flippin' penny. I don't sleep well in a sauna.

Oh, look! It's raining BIG drops! Too funny. My A/C is going full blast and it's raining out. I'm going to turn it off so I can open the window (the OTHER window!) I love to listen to the rain and smell the air. Good thing my car is in the garage; I just washed my windows and this rain is just enough to make them dirty.

Somebody has music really cranked up. I wonder if something is going on at the park or the pool?? They said sometime in August there will be a big fair across the street with booths and everything. Something new the merchants at the mall are trying. There will be wine tasting too. Carol's all excited .. she loves wine and we live just across the street! No designated driver needed. LOL

This music is way too loud. I can't hear the rain. Dang it.

Tami and I went to breakfast this morning. She took me to Elmer's. What a menu! I'll have to go back several times just to try all the different things that sound good. Today I had potato pancakes with bacon and eggs. Yum! Friday night Adrian treated Peggy, Carlos and I to dinner. We ate at the Farmhouse and it was pretty good too. (Peggy is me in Austin and she's here to help out for two weeks. Thank goodness!!) I had a classic reuben and it was yummy. With all this eating out that we've been doing .. and working these hours we tend to just grab a bite to eat .. I've still managed to maintain my 26 lb loss. It ain't easy, let me tell you! I'll be glad when everything settles down and we can start eating regularly.

It's starting to rain harder now .. oops, more thunder .. and a group of boys in their shirtsleeves just walked by bouncing a basketball. Act like it's a bright, sunny day.

My good news for today is I bought a mattress!! A real one! YAY I went to Sleep Country USA and they were really nice. I was ready to buy one but they don't make it in full size. Only queen or king. My room is MUCH too small for that. So I another level down but it's just as comfortable, nice cushy top, just no cashmere in the mattress cover. I'm sure there are a few other items not present but it feels hecka comfie. Told me I have 109 days to decide if I really like it (I was debating between this one and another one) and if not, I can exchange with no charge. Cool. He quoted me a price and I asked about financing .. then he said if they have it in overstock he can save me some money. They did and I saved $800. COOL! So my mattress, boxspring, mattress cover (I bought 2 because the 2nd one is 1/2 price) and frame were all less than the original price he quoted. The best part is that delivery is only $25, they set it up and remove all the packing materials (I warned them I'm on the 3rd floor) and there's NO sales tax!! Another savings! It will be delivered next Saturday. How cool is that. Now I'll have my Aerobed available for company. Queen-size, pretty comfy! Come on up!!

Ok. I've rambled long enough. I need to work on a spreadsheet for work and another spreadsheet for our group finances. It's almost time to pay the rent again and we all need to know how much to throw in the pot. Thanks for listening and stay tuned for more.

Still here

I've not forgotten you and I've not given up on blogging. I've been working 12-14 hour days and just have no time! Lots to catch up on and I'll get to you as soon as I can .. hang in there ...

It's all about the books!

Short but sweet .. well, short -- or maybe not

After reading my last entry Tami spoke to me with passion and intensity (she doesn't yell) and reminded me about the sticker related to our trip to Astoria. HOW could I have forgotten?? It really was funny.

When we got to the street fair in Astoria, we naturally had to find a place to park. As with most street fairs, there were a lot of people there and because it's in the middle of the downtown area parking is at a premium. We happened upon a fairly empty parking lot about 3 blocks from the fair. We didn't see any sign prohibiting parking so Tami pulled in and parked next to a building. There was a sign on the building that said no parking, but we assumed (you know what they say when you assume) it was for during the work week and this was a Sunday. So on our merry way we went with Tami's comment "if I get a ticket, you're all paying a share" ringing in our ears.

On our return we see a *huge* neon orange sticker pasted to the driver's side window. It says, for all the world to see: PARKING VIOLATION and mentions that the license plate has been recorded. Which means, of course, neener neener -- even if you remove this sticker, we got you!

In order to see out the window, Tami had to remove the sticker. Nope. That sucker is NOT coming off! It had super adhesive. I need some of that stuff for my scrapbooking! You know the type of adhesive ... when you buy something new and try to remove the label and it comes off in tiny strips and pieces because it's clinging for all it's worth to the surface it's adhered to. THAT adhesive! She managed to get a small corner removed so she could at least see if a car might be heading directly for her door but every time she turned to look out that window she was reminded that she made a very poor choice in parking. Not our fault, of course. We were merely passengers. She didn't have to listen to us shouting, park here! park here!

Now we'll all have to wait and see if she gets a ticket in the mail!

I stayed up too late last night and you're partly to blame. It takes some time to write these things. By the time I got Ellie's blanket all cut out it was almost midnight. My poor hand is so sore. Right at the base of the thumb. I was using shears that have never cut a piece of fabric in their pathetic existence. Those of you who've done any sewing know exactly what I mean. Once you use a pair of scissors for paper, it can never be used for material. Never. At least I got the blanket all cut out and tonight I just had to tie it. I finished tieing it and then promptly fell asleep. I just woke up a little bit ago (11:00 pm) and now I have to pack.

Packing for a trip home will be interesting because all I have is my small suitcase and these two blankets will take up that entire space. I may have to use these as my underseat storage. Will I have room for my purse? Doesn't matter ... I know I can still get on the plane. Besides, Heather printed out my boarding pass. Something about not trusting me to do it on my own ... just kidding.

It's a good thing she volunteered to do that because I don't have a printer set up yet. My personal printer is at work and we're still trying to get a cable for it. I keep saying I'll just run to Best Buy and get one and Carlos insists he has one, he just hasn't found it yet. It's in one of his boxes, he's sure of it. In the meantime, no printer.

So now I must leave you because I have packing to do and I really should sweep the kitchen floor and give it a quick onceover with the mop. Carol will be here Saturday and I don't get back until Sunday afternoon. Oh shoot. I still have some stuff in her room I need to move into this one. Okay, then. Later!

Still going, like the Ever Ready bunny

Shoot, I haven't posted since the 15th and only one person has berated me for not keeping you updated. That makes me think the rest of you have already stopped reading. Well, fine. I'll keep on anyway because it's becoming my personal journal. Well, not 'becoming' because that's really what it was all along. I've just let you nosy folks read it.

Tami yelled at me (yes, yelled!) for not reading my comments on the blogs, so I just did that. Omigosh! they are great! I laughed and smiled and miss all of you so much. The comments make me want to keep going, so you're stuck with me. Woe is you. And Tami? I don't remember the sticker associated with the trip to Astoria ...

It has been nearly two weeks since my last posting and I don't remember everything I've been doing. Heather can vouch for me that I've lost at least one day each week. I keep thinking it's Wednesday and she'll say NO, it's Thursday. Which can be a good thing!

Two weeks ago I got sick. I mean, hanging my head over the bowl sick. It was so bad I was lying on the bathroom floor. After about an hour I dragged myself to bed and was fine the next day. I'm sure it's something I ate. If only I knew what it was!! It made me think of Lynda LaMagra. I still remember when she got sick on chicken enchiladas and wouldn't eat them again. At the time I thought that was so weird. Turns out she's not the only one with that affliction. That's never been an issue for me. Ok, this is waaay too much talk about this subject!

Work has been slow .. for me. I did spend last week creating a floor plan (most of you know how much I love my Visio floor plans!) with all the phone numbers that are out on the floor. The other half of the building was being 'built' last week .. putting up all the work stations. This week Avaya is putting out the phones on that side. I'm supposed to be getting a seating chart from the Tigard office so I can match people with their new phone numbers. We were supposed to have it last Friday. Still waiting.

Carlos is very busy and he's very good about showing me what he's doing and explaining everything in detail so I'll have an understanding of the process. I'm still trying to get the terminology, because what I think of as pilot number they call a VDN, and what I called a routing table they call a vector. We both use the term hunt group but it doesn't have the same meaning. I'll get it ... eventually.

My niece, Amber, came by on Saturday. She and her fiance, Steve, are my first official visitors! It was supposed to rain all weekend but we had beautiful weather that day. Blue skies, sun shining and a nice balmy 74 degrees. They did a quick tour of the apartment ... quick because it's not that big! and I pointed out the 30 steps. My sister, Joan, commented that she's been doing 3rd floor for years .. but keep in mind that she's not 70 lbs overweight!!

Steve noticed the restaurant that's on the corner across from us ... Buffalo Wild Wings ... mentioned he loves buffalo wings. I told him that I ate there last week with Heather, Tami, Dave and Heaven and Heaven LOVES hot sauce. In fact, the hotter the better. She ordered her wings with their hottest sauce (called Blazin') and she actually broke out in a sweat. Well, he got excited about that so we went there for lunch. He had 6 wings with Blazin' sauce and 6 with Asian BBQ. He claims the Blazin' was somewhat diluted and he wished he'd asked for some on the side. So we now know he's a little tetched in the head. Heck, I can hardly handle the mild!

They didn't stay long because they are on a 2 week vacation and have sights to see and people to visit and fun to be had. After they left I realized I'd not taken any pictures (Stacey where are you when I need you??) and still had a ton of stuff to ask them and get caught up on. Amber said they come this way pretty often so I hope she'll stop in again.

I spent Sunday mostly in bed listening to a book on CD, crocheting, and napping. Pure heaven! I love being a couch potato!

On Monday, Heaven met me at JoAnn's fabrics and I bought some polar fleece to make blankets for Colin and Ellie. They're easy to make but they do require some time and effort. I got Colin's done, thanks in large part to Heaven's assistance, and tonight I'm pinning and marking Ellie's. I hope to get all the ends cut so tomorrow all I have to do is tie it and I'll be done. I don'tknow how I'm going to fit them in my suitcase because they're pretty big but OH SO WARM. Yes, I realize it's summer...but it won't be summer forever. And these will be like having hugs from Nana.

I did take some time last week to check out a few stores in the area. There are stores EVERYWHERE. I went to Michaels, where I happened to come across some yarn ... be quiet Brendan. I also bought some baskets for my bathroom to store all my stuff under the sink. Then I drove to a store called Craft Mart and they have some pretty cool things there, but I didn't buy anything. I am really impressed with the JoAnn's here because the one in Dublin is kind of trashy. This one is HUGE and they have a lot of selection in so many different crafts. All I bought is the blanket fleece though. yay me

I haven't quite emptied out Carol's room and I'm running out of time. I'll probably have to just dump the stuff in my room or I'll never get Ellie's blanket done. There really isn't that much, it's just hard trying to decide where to put it because there is NO STORAGE here.

Oh! Before I forget I want to tell you guys about a cool web site that Heaven shared with me. This is for all you book readers. It's www.paperbackswap.com and that's what it's about. Swapping books! Right now it's free although they tell you they may have to charge $10 to $20 yr sometime in the future. You post the books that you're able to swap ... they must be in very good condition ... and when you've posted 10 books you get two credits, which means you can 'order' two books. When someone requests one of the books you've posted, you have so many days to ship it to them (you pay shipping) and when they receive it, you get another credit. When you order a book from someone, they pay to ship it to you. And so it goes. They even have printable book wrap (prints on 2 pages) that apparently includes the requestor's mailing address. Average shipping costs are a little over $2 for a paperback that's under 13 oz. If you sign up, be sure to say you were referred by crochetin@yahoo.com. :0 )

It's getting late and I need to go work on Miss Ellie's blanket some more. My hand was getting sore from the scissors but I think it's okay now. You all behave yourselves and I'll be seeing a good lot of you this Friday.

Until next time ....

Settling in

So -- have you missed me? I've been busy over the past several days. Mostly running errands. Which I hate, by the way.

I FINALLY got a toaster! I used a gift card (thanks Christine) to buy it and since there will be 3 of us, I really splurged and bought a 4 slot toaster. Woo hoo! Toasters are handy things to have, you know. As are kitchen utensils like spatulas, stirring spoons, whisks, etc. I find a small ceramic vase with about 10 utensils for $7 or $8. Granted, the utensils are almost doll-sized but I can still use them (and have!)

I also bought a step stool so I could plug in the other light on my armoire. Every time I put something in my cart I think "how hard/easy will this be to get up the stairs?" That's a very important criteria, let me tell you. (30 steps to the top floor)

I used my egift card for Target (thanks Eric and Stacey) to buy a 3 drawer chest. Now that will be a real challenge. It's being delivered between the 20th and the 22nd and you know the darned thing will be heavy. Since I won't be home, they'll leave it at the leasing office. Not only do I have to figure out how to get it up the stairs, but how the heck will I get it from the leasing office to my apartment? I'm sure we'll figure something out.

I've already pretty much decided that for the chest, I'll open the box downstairs and haul the pieces up and put it together up there. When I leave, I'll have movers move it.

Tonight I want to go to Target and buy the matching nightstand. They had it in the store and the clerk said they'll load it on a flatbed for me. It shouldn't be as heavy as the chest so I think I can manage it on my own. My poor cardboard box nightstand is starting to sag in the middle. Time for an upgrade.

Yesterday was Carlos' birthday so I made some lemon squares. He'd never had them before. He really liked them and I had to burst the bubble and confess it was a box mix. Just add water and eggs. Whatever. With limited resources one does what one can.

I've been bringing my lunch the past few days even though we're not supposed to have food in the building (don't tell on me) -- the construction guys are eating in here all the time. I keep everything in my drawer just in case someone should come in.

I decided to run to the library at lunch today and was pleasantly surprised to find that it's very close to work! How cool is that! I had put in a request for a book online and they let me know that it was ready. I picked it up and have already started reading it. I know what you're thinking. With all the books I brought, why would I get a book from the library? Well, this particular author has written a series of books and I didn't have #3 in the series. I don't want to read #4 until I've read #3 .. see?

Thank goodness it's payday. Now I can pay my Comcast bill and get my nightstand. I may not be able to eat next week, but hey! that can't hurt!! (just kidding-I bought a large pack of chicken so I'll be fine)

Tomorrow Carlos and I have to go to Tigard for a conference call and then we're having a meet 'n greet because Adrian wants us to meet the department heads that we'll be working with. Gotta shine my shoes and spruce up my hair. I'm glad it wasn't today because I'm definitely having a BHD (bad hair day)

It's really warm today and I miss the clouds. There's no air conditioning in the building so we're really feeling it. What a whiney baby, huh.

I have more errands to run after work and the days are just dragging because there's not a lot for us to do just yet. It will all pick up next week, or so they tell me. In the meantime I'm falling asleep here.

I need to find the post office. I found one that is really close to our place but the darned thing is just a distribution center and they don't take mail over the counter or sell supplies. Shoot! So the hunt is on. Oh, I know you think all I have to do is look it up. Everything I look up just gives me phone numbers or they're businesses that do postal services. Whatever.

Wish me luck and hang in there until next time.

Happy Mother's Day!

So many things to tell you and so little time.

1) I think I mentioned that I have a weather blip on my desktop for Dublin, CA and one for Hillsboro, OR. It's kind of fun because it updates the forecast throughout the day and when it's nighttime, it shows a dark gray background with a moon. At 8:30pm Dublin was already mooning (LOL) and Hillsboro was still showing a sun! It stays light longer up here.

2) You know how when you travel or move anything the locals do that's different from the way it's done at "home" is wierd? Let me tell you about a few of my "only in Oregon" experiences. First of all, in the Portland airport restroom: this is just plain WIERD. There are instructions for flushing the toilet. Pull the handle up for liquids, down for solids.

Yesterday I took the entire day off as a day of rest. Sure, I had errands to run, but the couch potato in me was crying to get out!! It has been at least a month since I've been able to lapse into my vegetative state so I was well overdue. I turned on an audio book in the kitchen (using my Bose iPod speaker ... thanks E & S!) and tidied up, did dishes and organized. Sounds like work but when you're listening to a book, it doesn't feel like work.

I went upstairs and downloaded an audio book from the public library (new author and I really like the book) and listened to it while I unpacked another box and tried to get my room a little more organized. Again, with a book, it doesn't seem like work.

Then I went downstairs, revised my list for the 5 different stores I need to visit and turned on TV to watch marathon movies on Lifetime. A GREAT day.

Tami called and asked if I wanted to go to the farmers market with them tomorrow (which was today). Since I'd already blown Saturday I really needed to do some shopping Sunday so I asked if we'd be long ... I really can't go much longer without a blow dryer. She said I should know that Heather is not a Looky Lou so it will be a look quickly and go situation. No problem!

Fair warning. Should they ever invite you on an excursion, get complete and thorough details before you commit.

I got to their house about 9:30 and we headed out. I want it known we were still in Hillsboro when I mentioned that Hillsboro is a lot bigger than Dublin. Besides, the miles here are much longer, as I've already stated. We had been driving for about 45 minutes (maybe less) when I asked just where this farmers market is located. I thought it was in Hillsboro (wore a light jacket) but oh no! It's in ASTORIA, for cryin' out loud.

On the way there, we saw a sign that said "drinking water - rt 1/4 mi" That's wierd says I. Tami got all excited and said, oh let's stop! Sure enough there at the side of the road is what looks like a drinking fountain. It's actually a natural spring and people stop there and fill up bottles of varying sizes and types. Tami even dumped out her bottle of spring water (only in Oregon) and filled it up with -- spring water! Granted, this water is ice cold, but it didn't taste any different to me, although Tami insists it's the BEST water in the world. Maybe it's the thrill of filling it up yourself.

Entering the town of Seaside (we're near the OR coast) there's another sign that says "entering tsunami hazard zone" Now that's something you don't see every day! I'll tell you, I sure breathed a sigh of relief when about 2 miles later we came across the sign that said "leaving tsunami hazard zone". Again, only in Oregon.

There was another roadside sign that I found amusing. It said something to the effect that the hills block the view. We're driving in mountainous terrain. Of course, the hills block your view. I'm guessing the sign is for the Oregonians who might not realize the reason they can't see beyond the hills is because the hills are blocking their view! Alright, I know there must be a valid reason for the sign, but I was so busy laughing about it I couldn't see what it might be.

On the way I got a phone call from Eric wishing me a happy mother's day. Did a quick hello with the grandkids. Colin, sounding all grown up, wished me a happy mother's day and said he was giving his mom a good day too. Then Ellie got on and said "hi, Nana! Whatcha' doin?" I told her we were going to the farmers market to buy some vegetables. "OH! ok, bye". A minute later she wanted to talk to me again, and repeated the same script word for word. We did this 3 or 4 times. I think she'd fit right in up here. LOL

When we go to the "farmers market" it wasn't really a farmers market at all. It was a street fair. Only one or two booths out of the 50 or so had vegetables. We cruised all the booths and called ahead to the Camp 18 restaurant (I think that's the right name) and made reservations for 4:00.

We had some time to kill so we went to the aquarium. Tami fed fish to the sea lions and Dave (her son) figured out how to make one of them roll over. Cute! There were 35 (or so the sign said) fish tanks but really ... this was nothing like the aquarium in Maui. And they charge $7 per person! We got the family rate so it was more like $4.25 each. We still had some time to spare so we stopped at an outlet mall (they had a bookstore --- but I didn't buy any books!) for a bit.

It did rain today. So strange. It rained only while we were in the car. Every time we got out to do something, it stopped raining. Very cooperative! I was wishing I'd thought to bring the rain hat Barb gave me, but I didn't need it. I am going to pack it in my purse though.

Lunch at the restaurant was good. Our waiter was a cute kid and very friendly. We asked what he was doing for his mom (she lives in AK) and he wished us all a happy mother's day. The restaurant is very rustic. All mismatched tables and chairs. Supposedly like a logging camp. I didn't read the history of the site but it may have been a logging camp at one time.

A long day but we still got back in time for me to run to Target and pick up a few more essentials. I needed a lidded skillet to fix dinner and I bought a step stool and a bathroom scale. It's too easy to get off track if I don't have something to remind me where I am and where I'm going.

I got a really cute ecard from Justin that had my picture all over it! Thanks Justin! I think I told you yesterday about the cards from Eric and Stacey and the kids. Yep, Brendan, now is the time for you to feel guilty.

My apologies to Brendan! He sent an email to my Comcast email saying Happy Mother's Day to the best mom he ever had. Lucky thing my sister Joan left a comment on one of my postings here to check my email. Just so you guys know, I hardly ever check my Comcast email addy. I'm on Yahoo all the time. So if you write me and I haven't answered, you may be using that email address. I'm not really ignoring you (or maybe I am!) Joan, I'll get that check out right away, thank you.

Well, it's 9:42 and I need to throw a load of clothes in the washer and start getting ready for bed. Enough rambling for today. You take care and start thinking about when you're going to come up for a visit. I'll need advance notice so I can arrange a day or two off work. My niece, Amber, is coming through on the 24th and I'm looking forward to seeing her.

Okay, that's it! No more rambling. I've got a book to listen to and chores to do. I'll talk to you later. Take care ...