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December 8, 2007

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

We had to go into town over the weekend, as there were a couple of Blazer games to engineer and my sister Jeanne was flying in from Arizona to visit with us for a week.

Saturday, I decided to venture out and start my Christmas shopping at the mall. I don't know what got into me, I hate shopping and I hate crowds, but when you are only in the big city a couple of times before Christmas, you have to bite the bullet and take advantage. I left early enough in the morning to try to avoid most of the Christmas rush, but I still had a terrible time finding a parking place and ended up parking in the south forty and walking a distance. Of course, the mall is under construction and the parking is at a premium as it is. Luckily, the weather was halfway decent so I didn't have to walk in the rain.

I am one of these shoppers who want to get in and get out as quickly as possible and I usually have a plan of attack, so to speak. There are some shoppers who have to bring all their kids with them and they wander around looking at everything. What I hate the most are the little kiosks in the middle of the aisles and the sales people who are always grabbing people as they walk by. I hate to be rude, but I just don't have time to stop. I did pick up a few things, but most of the stuff was for friends and family that live far away and I have to mail their gifts. I have already gotten the grandkids enough stuff and I think I am just going to give my kids money for Christmas. That is always a welcome gift.

We caught up with my sister at the airport Saturday night. We usually leave the house in time to drive by the baggage claim to pick people up. It works out pretty good. They call us just as they are getting their luggage and we know where to meet them, versus some people who drive around and around and finally take up space at the curb waiting for their arrival. Anyway, it was good to see her again and after picking up a bite to eat, we headed over to our daughter's in West Linn to spend the night. Lara was nice enough to put Jeanne up for a couple of nights as the place where my mom lives has rooms available but they wanted to charge a fee to sleep there. You would think with what we are paying to keep my mom there that could at least host relatives who are coming from a distance instead of charging them. They also charge for any meal with my mom too. Now that is really encouraging people to come and visit, huh? It's not that their food is all that great either. I guess I should write them a letter.

Instead of coming home after the game on Sunday, we stayed in town until Monday so my sisters and I could take my mom out for lunch. We don't get together that often and my mom enjoys getting away. While we were there, I asked the waitress if she would take our picture. I had her take two, just to make sure we got a good one. This is what we got! And this was the better of the two! There ought to be a law that if you are going to be in a position to get asked to use a camera that you at least know how to take a photo without moving the camera. Or at least, make them tell the truth: "No ma'am, I don't know how to handle a digital camera. Chuck is our designated staff photographer, I'll go get him". Something like that. Oh well, this is better than nothing, I guess. After our lunch, I said goodbye and picked up Dave and headed back to the coast. Dave had come down with a terrible cold over the weekend and I know he was anxious to get home and into his own bed. I have been trying to stay clear of him because a cold is not what I want for Christmas.

The rest of this week we have been working on getting caught up around here. I got the Christmas letters mailed. I had them ready last week, but I didn't want to be the first ones received, so I decided to wait until this week to mail them. We haven't gotten the fake tree up or the lights outside done yet. Dave has been busy with other things and besides he still is suffering from his cold. We have had a couple of nice days too. In fact, I spent one afternoon outside raking up the remainder of the leaves that had fallen. I think I am done with that job for the year.

We got a new propane gas tank installed on Thursday. Before we moved into this house, Dave's mom had installed a little fireplace in the living room that is fueled by propane. We don't use it very often because Dave didn't like doing business with the propane gas delivery people. It seemed they charged people different amounts depending on how much gas they used and so in protest, Dave refused to use it at all. Boy, did he show them, huh. So we have been paying rent on this tank and not using it. The stove had been shut off for quite awhile and we have had some pretty cold weather and decided to give it another try. Also, since we have an electric furnace, when the power does goes out, we don't have any heat. Anyway, we tried to get the fireplace working one night when the electricity was out and it wouldn't work. So, we had the fireplace people come in to check it out. As it turned out, the tank was completely empty and we thought that was strange since it was full before we had turned it off. The service man said he guessed we had a leak somewhere. Since we didn't like doing business with the gas people anyway and paying rent for their leaky tank, we decided to go with another company in the area and buy our own tank which will be cheaper in the long run.

We will be home until the 15th of December. The Blazers are on the road and so we don't have to go in. That means we'll be home for 10 straight days! That's really rare for us at this time of year. I really enjoy being home and hope to get the rest of my Christmas shopping done "locally".