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.
Showing posts with label Catching Up. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Catching Up. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Friday, November 02, 2007
Ho Hum
In talking with dd#3 just a little while ago, I came to the realization that I haven't posted anything here in almost a month. So just to reassure my 3 readers that I am still alive and well, let me just give a brief run-through of the past month.
1. Home: Made it home from Salt Lake okay. I stopped in La Grande on the way home, to break up the trip and to do some more research. Sunday night as I was getting ready to organize what I wanted to look for at the Pierce Library at EOU, I changed my mind and decided to look for a few graves instead. My "baby" brother, who would actually have been 7 years older than me had he lived but died at 2 or 3 days old, was buried in the Hillcrest cemetery in La Grande. A great-great uncle & aunt were also buried there. To make a long story short, I discovered that my brother did not have a tombstone. Have talked with a few members of the family about getting one for him, that may be a future event.
2. Work work WORK! The night I left La Grande, I got an email that one (or so I thought) of the real estate files I put online was ready for download. I had a good, fast connection, so downloaded my book that night. Unfortunately, I didn't read the email, just the subject line, or I would have gotten the news before I got home. Instead of doing two Home Source magazines, I was getting to do all FIVE of them. Sigh. So much for personal time. But between the two jobs, I made over $900 in October.
3. Pumpkin Party. This has been an annual tradition since 1995. Our whole family (or as many as will or can come), gathers at dd#2's house, armed with a pumpkin to carve and whatever potluck dish we've been asked to bring. Costumes are optional. Usually the little kids will dress in costumes, sometimes the grown-ups do too. We had this year's event on the 27th. It went pretty well. Two new "additions" to the group this year was dd#4's fiance, and dd#5's boyfriend. The boyfriend hadn't met too many of our extended family yet, so this was a first for them & for him. He's still dating dd#5, so apparently we didn't scare him too badly.
4. Disappearing/reappearing quarter. I volunteer at my local genealogy society library twice a month as a librarian. Yesterday when I got there, my partner, Larry, mentioned that he was off a quarter and would I see if I could find it. I pulled the quarters out of their space in the cash box and counted them. I came up with 15 quarters, which is what he had come up with, but was one short from the previous day's count. He looked in the file box drawer about that time, and there the rascally little quarter was--it had somehow escaped the cash box and was sitting there in the drawer, waiting to be discovered. Six hours later, when we counted the cash again to be sure we balanced (my turn this time), I only counted 15 quarters. I turned to Larry to ask him if he had put that quarter in the section reserved for quarters, and when I turned back to the money, it was sitting in its space, waiting to be discovered. I should have called today's crew to see if they still had problems with this mischevious quarter.
So we are now into November. Halloween is over, except for the leftover candy. Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and following that it will be Christmas. Let's see what the rest of the month brings.
1. Home: Made it home from Salt Lake okay. I stopped in La Grande on the way home, to break up the trip and to do some more research. Sunday night as I was getting ready to organize what I wanted to look for at the Pierce Library at EOU, I changed my mind and decided to look for a few graves instead. My "baby" brother, who would actually have been 7 years older than me had he lived but died at 2 or 3 days old, was buried in the Hillcrest cemetery in La Grande. A great-great uncle & aunt were also buried there. To make a long story short, I discovered that my brother did not have a tombstone. Have talked with a few members of the family about getting one for him, that may be a future event.
2. Work work WORK! The night I left La Grande, I got an email that one (or so I thought) of the real estate files I put online was ready for download. I had a good, fast connection, so downloaded my book that night. Unfortunately, I didn't read the email, just the subject line, or I would have gotten the news before I got home. Instead of doing two Home Source magazines, I was getting to do all FIVE of them. Sigh. So much for personal time. But between the two jobs, I made over $900 in October.
3. Pumpkin Party. This has been an annual tradition since 1995. Our whole family (or as many as will or can come), gathers at dd#2's house, armed with a pumpkin to carve and whatever potluck dish we've been asked to bring. Costumes are optional. Usually the little kids will dress in costumes, sometimes the grown-ups do too. We had this year's event on the 27th. It went pretty well. Two new "additions" to the group this year was dd#4's fiance, and dd#5's boyfriend. The boyfriend hadn't met too many of our extended family yet, so this was a first for them & for him. He's still dating dd#5, so apparently we didn't scare him too badly.
4. Disappearing/reappearing quarter. I volunteer at my local genealogy society library twice a month as a librarian. Yesterday when I got there, my partner, Larry, mentioned that he was off a quarter and would I see if I could find it. I pulled the quarters out of their space in the cash box and counted them. I came up with 15 quarters, which is what he had come up with, but was one short from the previous day's count. He looked in the file box drawer about that time, and there the rascally little quarter was--it had somehow escaped the cash box and was sitting there in the drawer, waiting to be discovered. Six hours later, when we counted the cash again to be sure we balanced (my turn this time), I only counted 15 quarters. I turned to Larry to ask him if he had put that quarter in the section reserved for quarters, and when I turned back to the money, it was sitting in its space, waiting to be discovered. I should have called today's crew to see if they still had problems with this mischevious quarter.
So we are now into November. Halloween is over, except for the leftover candy. Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and following that it will be Christmas. Let's see what the rest of the month brings.
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