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September 8, 2006

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!
(Shhhh, I'm a day late this week, but don't tell anyone!)

We got back from our camping trip to Kah-nee-ta with Leslie's family last Friday, so I spent most of the Labor Day weekend collecting myself by getting caught up on the laundry; housecleaning and yard work so we could leave again on Monday for our fall trip to the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland.

Sunday was Dave's birthday and our dear friends, Des and Donna Kahrs, invited us for dinner and a musical concert. The dinner was great and we enjoyed the concert very much. It was performed at their church and consisted of an ensemble of 8 men and women who sang some songs I even could remember, like "Old Black Magic" and "Some of My Favorite Things". We ended up back over at Kahrs' for pie and ice cream and a taste of the Scotch they had given Dave as a birthday gift.

Monday, we packed for our trip to Ashland and headed down the coast as far as Reedsport where we turned inland, as we had reservations at the Seven Feathers Indian Resort in Canyonville for that night. It took us about 5 hours to get there and boy were we hot and tired by the time we arrived. We normally spend the night in Cottage Grove, but the hotel there was booked up so, we decided to give Seven Feathers a try. It was really nice, they have a casino there and we decided NOT to give any of our money to the Indians this time. The next day we arrived in Ashland in time to check in to our room and head for our first play by 1:30.

Dave and I enjoy coming to the plays very much and love the little town of Ashland. We have been members of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for the past 25 years and we enjoy each other's company at this time. We always go to our favorite places to eat, although some of them had disappeared since the last time we were there. We went to one place where we used to go for dinner and the whole place was gone...there was a new building there! We walked around it twice looking for our old restaurant, thinking maybe they hid it. We did find a pizza place, but nothing like the spot we used to like to go to. That's one thing about Ashland. Because it's so tourist-reliant, places come and go quite a bit. Every time we go, something old is gone and something new has taken its place. In spite of the name of the Festival, there are actually only three or four Shakespeare plays each season. We always spend three days down there in the Fall, seeing 6 plays. This trip, we saw King John, Cyrano de Bergerac, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Two Gentlemen of Verona, Bus Stop and The Merry Wives of Windsor. I enjoyed most of the productions except the Two Gentlemen of Verona, which was directed by the newly hired Artistic Director. There was a new twist to the play and most of the time, all the props overshadowed the actors and there was too much falderal to where, at the end, you were left without closing. Because of the new AD's involvement with the play, I hope this is not the beginning of things to come for the Festival.

Friday, we had plans to stop by and visit with some steam friends that live just outside of Medford in Eagle Point. We spent about two hours there and then decided to take the "back roads" to meet up with I-5 at Canyonville. It was a beautiful drive through the mountains, following the Rogue River some of the way. We arrived in Salem at Leslie and Jason's who were just headed out to sign the papers on the house that they had bought in Silverton. So we stopped at Frye's Electronics to buy Leanna a new printer and then to have a bite to eat before we arrived at Lara and Greg's. We decided to spend the night at their place because we were tired of driving all day. The next morning, we went over to see my mother and made another stop to look at a small television for our dining room. The one we had finally died. We like to watch the news while we eat our dinner and have really missed not having a television. We purchased a really nice 14" flat-screen TV that is kind of "over-kill" for our purpose, but it will be nice just the same.

GIVE ME A BREAK!!

On my many adventures during the past couple of weeks, I have been to a few restaurants and restrooms along the way and there is one thing that I have been wondering about. In using the restrooms and washing my hands afterward, I have come across these new "automated" paper towel dispensers. Why do they only disperse one tiny sheet about 6" long for you to dry your hands on? Come on! Whoever invented this contraption has probably never used one before. It is almost impossible to dry ones hands on one tiny 6" piece of paper and so you must keep trying to dispense more sheets while you are ripping off the sheet already dispensed! It's like trying to dry your hands with confetti! Then there are those "automatic" faucets. Some of them don't even tell you they are automatic...you just have to grope around with your hand and hope you trigger something, and you're never sure you're doing it right! Sometimes you wait for as long as 15 seconds for the water to come on and meanwhile you are hoping this is how it works and you aren't making a fool of yourself waiting for the water to magically appear. I just know that sometime someone is going to be looking over my shoulder and ask why I don't just turn on the faucet that I've somehow overlooked. Give me a break!!

Well, I have rambled on enough for this week. It is late Saturday afternoon and I am way past my deadline, as the Webmaster will be walking the floors wanting to post this.

Sorry there are no pictures in this post. We hauled that camera around with us all 750 miles this week and didn't take a single picture!