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January 7, 2005

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

It has been a busy week!

After our Blazer game over the weekend, we stayed in town on Sunday so that Dave could get some more electrical work done in Lara's office. He has a couple of hours left to do, and we will do that today before we go to the Blazer game tonight. He wants to get the job done because it's one of those "chain-reaction" projects. Lara needs to get the office completed so she can move the computer out of Jadyn's new bedroom and get her moved in there. What is now Jadyn's room will become the nursery once the baby arrives. So there's some urgency to getting the whole thing done. After he put his tools away for the day, we left West Linn around 5:30 and headed for Dave's haircut appointment and then we stopped at our favorite restaurant, "The Reedville Cafe" for dinner. They had just reopened it after remodeling, and we wanted to check it out.

We headed for home after that and boy, did we keep our eyes peeled to the road for both ice (it was very cold outside) and our four legged friends who might wander onto the highway. It was a very intense two-hour ride home, believe me. We slipped on the ice in a couple of places and Dave put the Jeep into 4-wheel drive just to be on the safe side. We only saw one deer grazing along the road but it sure felt good to finally make it back home again.

Monday, I got up early and started my swimming aerobics class. There are about 12 other overweight, middle-aged ladies in the class so I felt right at home. The instructor is a real drill sergeant and she worked us pretty hard. My body kept saying, "What are you thinking? You must be out of your mind to get me out here in this water at 8:00 o'clock in the morning!" Also, the instructor had this rash that she had developed over the weekend that started under her breast and continued around her back. The first thing I thought of was "Shingles!" and whether she was contagious! Well, it did turn out to be Shingles but she assured us that it wasn't contagious. I checked the medical encyclopedia and she's right, it's not contagious. Well, sort of. We could get Chicken Pox from her, but not Shingles. I'll be gone for a couple of weeks and hopefully, she'll be better by then. As far as the class goes, so far so good. I am a little sore in my legs and arms from flailing about in the water, but I do feel better.

While I was at the pool, I meet a woman who teaches watercolor painting. That's something that I have wanted to do for a long time, but haven't had any luck finding anyone who taught. It was just a coincidence that she was there, and when I get back from my vacation in Florida, I am going to take a few lessons.

Speaking of Florida, we will be leaving Saturday and won't be back in town until the 18th. Actually, with a game on the 19th, we won't be home here in Wheeler until the 20th. I have been busy packing and it is kind of hard to think of packing shorts, suntan lotion and mosquito repellent for 75-degree weather when it is freezing outside today. We are going to stay at the home of some friends in Central Florida. Stan and Terrie have this beautiful place with a swimming pool and it is right on a golf course. They will be picking us up at the airport and letting us use their car while we are there. Actually, they'll be headed back to Oregon soon after they pick us up, so we'll have the place to ourselves while we are there. Not that we'll be at the house that much. We plan to take several days and drive down to the Florida Keys and the Everglades, as we have never been there before. We feel so lucky to have such great and generous friends. We promise to take lots of pictures. We're hoping that we can find some Internet access while we're on the road and post an update on this page next week. At least that's the plan.

So, after tonight's game, we'll head for a hotel near the airport. They'll let us keep our car there while we're away, and will take us to the terminal in a shuttle bus. That way, we don't need to worry about parking at the airport and getting our stuff to baggage check-in. They'll drop us right at the door! And the price of the hotel room for the night is less than what we would have paid for parking at the airport! Besides, it looks like it may be snowing when we head out to catch our flight, so this is a good thing all around!