Catching Up

Wow! I didn't realize how much time has gone by since I did my last post. We got through Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, a snow storm, and various other things over the past two months. So here goes with catching up.

In November, Ardyth gave me another installment of my birthday present--window shopping in downtown Portland, along with dinner. We had a late lunch-early dinner at her apartment in NW PDX--a great home made soup, salad and garlic bread. Yummy! We were headed to the Saturday Market in downtown PDX, so after we ate we headed over to the streetcar stop. It was 20 minutes till the next one and we didn't want to waste time standing around waiting for it. We decided to walk to the next stop to kill some time, but ended up walking instead over to the Max Station by PGE Park. We had at least a 10-block walk to get there. My knees were in pretty good shape and after dropping a few pounds, I was feeling good so I didn't mind the walk. Boarded Max and rode down to Saturday Market. We walked around it for a while, looking at all the goods. It was getting pretty close to closing time by the time we got there. We did buy three red velvet cupcakes at one of the booths--saving one for Princess A, who was meeting us after she got off work. Once we met up with her, we walked up to Pioneer Courthouse Square to get a look at the Christmas tree. It wasn't lit yet (this was the Saturday before Thanksgiving and it wouldn't be lit until the day after Thanksgiving), but we could at least see it. On the way, which took another long walk, we nearly walked into a street fight, and heard what I thought was a parade--I heard the familiar sounds of drums echoing through the streets. Turned out it was a young man sitting on a street corner with 4 or 5 overturned 5-gallon buckets and a pair of drumsticks. He put on quite a show--he really did sound like the drum section of a marching band. I wanted to leave him a little money but didn't want Ardyth to get too far ahead of me. Once we were done at the Pioneer Square, we decided to head on over to Powell's bookstore. Walk? Ride the streetcar? I was still feeling pretty good, so we walked another bunch of blocks (10 or so maybe) to Powells, spent time looking around and buying books. I only bought a quilting book, Princess A bought a bunch of anime' books, and I don't remember what Ardyth bought, but it was time to head back to her apartment. Walk? Ride the bus? Still feeling fairly peppy, so off we strode again. It's probably another 10 blocks or so from Powell's to Ardyth's home, and by the time we were halfway there I was finally wishing we had opted for the streetcar. I was pooped, my knees hurt, and it was difficult to drag myself those last few blocks. More soup, then home. My knees are still protesting some 2 months later. But that was a fun Saturday--I'm really enjoying this birthday gift.

December's birthday activity was a movie night. Ardyth came over with dinner and "Julia and Julie." What a great movie! Stanley Tucci was in it, and we also showed her "Shall We Dance?" which also featured him. Another fun night. Looking forward to this Saturday when it's "Tea Party" time.

Thanksgiving was fairly quiet--it was our off-year when none of the kids and families were here. Except Josephus Awrightus. We held off dinner until 6 p.m for his benefit, since he works nights and sleeps days.

The week before Christmas we had a surprise snow storm. Not as bad as last year's storm which began on December 13th and lasted past Christmas. Wasn't that bad here, and it didn't start till after we were all home safe & snug. Enough snow for me for the year.

Christmas Eve was the usual pandemonium, with 26 people present this year. It was good to see Miss Magee, home from school in the east. We made the usual potato salad, had deli-style sandwiches, chips, etc. Opened Christmas presents. Enjoyed a Christmas puppet show put on by Myra and her husband Art. Noisy, but fun. Christmas day we ate at Pink Avenger's and watched the latest Star Trek movie. Another nice time, PA is becoming a pretty good cook.

We expected a nice, quiet New Year's Eve at home but got invited to spend the evening with several couples from church at a *progressive dinner.* For those who may not know what this is, you eat your dinner at various homes--hors d'oeveres at one location, soup or salad somewhere else, the main course at a third location, and dessert at someone else's home. What a fun night--we are usually home bodies on New Years Eve, but this was different AND fun.

My car broke yesterday. I was carless today, but DC was able to fix it tonight, even though it wasn't easy and wasn't cheap. The greatest part was that perhaps the persistent oil leak that allows oil to slop onto the engine and smoke & smell bad, may be fixed as well. I will get the errands I wanted to do today, done tomorrow, so we'll tell for sure. It will be nice to have it back, and kudos to DC for his persistence and skill in fixing it.

That's not all, but you may be falling asleep by now so I will stop, and try not to let so much time go by between posts.