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July 7, 2006
IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!
When I last wrote in here it was sometime in the middle of last week because I was getting ready to go back into Portland to see a performance with some friends and then run some errands.
The performance, "Menopause the Musical" was a riot. I didn't stop laughing until long after it was over!! This hilarious celebration was about women and the change, which I can relate to. The characters were four women: Earth Mother, Iowa Housewife, Power Woman and Soap Star and they had taken songs from the sixties and seventies and changed the words a little. For instance, "Heat Wave" was "Hot Flash", "My Guy" was "My Thigh" and "Help Me Rhonda" was "Thank You Doctor". My friends are going back to see it again because they thought it was that great. If I was in Portland, I probably would too - it was that good!
After spending the night in town, I headed for my doctor's appointment and blood test Friday morning and then it was off to the grocery store and home. I got back down to the coast around noon and anticipated the arrival of our whole family for our annual get together on the 4th of July weekend. We ended up with six adults and four grandchildren for 5 days, and we had seven others drop in on one of those days. We took the kids to the Farmer's Market in Tillamook on Saturday and then out to a farm and nursery so they could see some of the sheep and chickens. I also bought some herbs for my garden while I was out there. Later that afternoon, the girls went to Nedonna Pond to go fishing. It's a little one-acre lake just down the road that they stock with trout. They had so much fun and each one of them came home with a fish. They did so much screaming when they got a fish on the line, that it is a wonder that they caught anything! Luckily, Lara had the video camera running, so the whole experience is recorded for posterity. Three Rainbow Trout didn't go very far, but everyone got a taste for lunch anyway.
Sunday was the birthday celebration for Greg and me. The girls had to help grandma open up her presents. When the cousins decide to get the wrapping off a present, the confetti really flies! I didn't have to lift a finger and the presents were unwrapped!
We were invited down to the Kahrs' for hamburgers and hotdogs that evening. They have a huge wharf out over the river with a big fire pit on it, and it's a great place for a party. We had lots of food and little Jaysa - who will eat about anything - especially loves olives and she had to show us the correct way to eat them. They always taste better after you put them on the end of your fingers! How is it that every kid who ever lived knows how to do that? After it started to get dark, and it was getting about bedtime for the little ones, I came back to the house with the girls while their parents continued to celebrate. For some of them, a little too much celebration!
I got up early on Monday and took Lara and Leslie with me over to my water aerobics class. I wanted to show them how much fun I have working out with our group each morning. Leslie wasn't feeling too sharp (what did I say about too much celebration?) but she managed to pull it off just fine. Later that day, the girls did some weeding and cleaned the gutters for us. We also washed the steamboat in readiness for the parade on Tuesday. The guys went crabbing and managed to come home with just one crab. They had to throw the others back because they weren't big enough. They also came back pretty wet and cold. Apparently they had run into some pretty high winds and water swells while they were out in the bay and were glad to get back. It wasn't the warmest July Fourth we've ever had. It wasn't too bad here at the house, but on the open water out by the ocean, it was pretty miserable.
We had great fun in the parade riding in the steamboat. We put it on the trailer and tow it along the parade route with the Suburban every year. Unfortunately, we didn't get to steam it up this year and toot the whistle for the crowds because Dave discovered more problems with the boiler! Just as he was steaming it up to get ready for the parade, he noticed steam and hot water coming out of places that shouldn't have been leaking! We kept it in the parade, because the kids were really looking forward to the experience, but a lot of spectators were disappointed that the whistle wasn't blowing! So now, Dave has a five-hour tow back up to Everett to get the boat fixed - again - the first of next week. It was really disappointing because we were planning on putting it in the water after the parade. Anyway, the parade was fun and the girls enjoyed throwing out candy to the crowds - at least what they didn't stuff in their mouths. We went through six huge bags of candy pretty fast.
Our good friends, Stan and Terrie came down and met us at the parade and rode in the steamboat also. Afterwards, we came back to the house and I fixed bbq'd chicken and corn-on-the-cob. We sat around and relaxed most of the afternoon then we played a couple games of Yahtzee until it got dark enough for us to watch the fireworks from Manzanita. They're about three miles away across the bay, but we can see them pretty well from our front deck. The fireworks are kind of fun but they didn't last more than 10 minutes. Stan and Terrie spent the night and left bright and early for town, as they had to go to work the next day. Sorry 'bout them - they haven't retired yet!
Now the fun begins, I got busy and cleaned all the fingerprints off my windows, vacuumed up the crumbs off the floor and washed the bedding. I took a deep breath and spent the rest of the day relaxing. It seems so quiet around here and though I love my grandchildren dearly, they about wear me out and it takes me a few days to recover. But I wouldn't trade our July 4th get togethers for anything and I can't wait to see their smiling faces again.
We discovered a leaky pipe in the garage. I just happened to be walking out there in my slippers and they got all wet. The shut-off valve on the water main had sprung a leak and was pouring a nice little stream of water on the garage floor! Of course, it had been doing that for a while before we discovered it, so we frantically moved boxes that we had been storing out in the garage, some of which were already soaked through. We had to find new boxes to put things in and dry a few things out. What a mess!! We spent a couple of hours just mopping up the water and moving stuff so that the plumber could get to the leak. I hate it when the plumber says he has to go back to the office to work up the bill and that he'll mail it to us. Makes me think he doesn't want to be around when we find out how much that little job cost. But we got it fixed, and now maybe we can get some motivation going to get the garage cleaned out. We got a good start on the project. Some of the stuff we moved off that wall had been there since Dave's parents built the house 30 years ago!
This last week, the mayor put out a plea for people to serve on the city Parks Commission, so I volunteered. My appointment won't be official until the City Council meets in a couple of weeks, but they weren't overwhelmed with applications, so I think I'm in. We'll be making plans for the improvements and additions to the town's two city parks. It's only one day a month, and it's the same day that Dave has Business Association and Planning Commission meetings, so it won't be hard to schedule my time. It ought to be interesting.
Well, that was my busy week and I hope everyone had a nice holiday. We will be going to the Nichols family reunion up at White Salmon, Washington on Saturday. We usually have a reunion every year but didn't last year. It will be fun to see everybody again. We were going to take the motorhome and stay three days, but we just don't have the time, and besides, gas is back up to three bucks a gallon! If we took the RV to the reunion, followed by Dave towing the boat to Everett, we'd have to float a loan just to get through the month. So we'll just go up for the main reunion day and come back Saturday night.
