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March 16, 2007

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

After posting this journal last Friday, I got this brilliant idea to drive into Portland, spend the day in town and get some of my overdue shopping done. We usually try to tie shopping trips in with another trip to town, but this time, it was shopping and shopping only! There were about five different stops I wanted to make, so we took off early. I had taken along a half empty can of paint so that I could match it for some more I needed and while driving in we could hear this "ping" noise coming from the back seat. The only time a "ping" noise sounds good to me is when I was canning and that meant the lid had sealed. Anyway, it was the high altitude going over the coast range that was causing the can to expand. I was afraid that the lid would come off, so I made Dave stop along the highway and check it out. I could visualize paint spilling all over the back end of the Jeep. At least we knew when we went up through - and back down through - the 1200-foot level! The can told us! I had also wanted to stop and check out some twin sheets that were on sale at Macy's, so we stopped there. The sheets were on sale for $24.99 a set with a 10% discount. But if you spent $100, you would get a 15% discount. Since we were 4 cents short of $100, the clerk added 5 cents to the total price so that we could get the 15% discount. So, by paying more, we ended up paying 5% less. What a deal! We ended up going to lunch with Stan and Laura Mushaw who were here from Virginia, too. By the time the day was over we had pretty well crossed off everything on our list. We drove back to the coast late that afternoon, and boy, was I tired.

We saw one funny thing on the way in to town, although maybe you had to be there to appreciate it. Up near the summit, there's a "viewpoint". At least, that's what the sign says, although most days are cloudy up there and you can't see a thing. On the few days when it is clear, you can see Mt. St. Helens and a couple of other peaks. When the volcano is steaming, it is quite a sight. But those days are rare. The viewpoint was created by a huge "clearcut" - when loggers cut every tree in sight for about 4 square miles. So, when it's cloudy, all you can see are stumps. Still, people will stop and look, trying to see something. Friday, it was so foggy we could hardly see the edge of the road, but we had to laugh, because there at the "viewpoint" were two people standing by their car, looking out into the "view" and trying to take a picture! They couldn't even see out to the first stump!

After our massive shopping spree on Friday, we decided we didn't get enough, so we headed up to Seattle. We had two missions, first was a stop at the IKEA store in Renton. We decided that since the new one in Portland wouldn't be open before summer, and since we were going to be in the area anyway, that we would go ahead and buy the bunk beds for the storage room on this trip. Dave had gotten a map off the IKEA website and it wasn't very accurate. We took the wrong exit, but luckily he has a wonderful sense of direction and he can find our way to anywhere. I kept pointing to the very large IKEA sign (you could see it for blocks) and we finally made it. Since this was Saturday, it was a crowded mess and after walking around the maze, we found the bunk beds that were priced $30 more than what the website advertised! The store personnel explained that their prices were higher because they own their own franchise. We debated for a while and decided to go ahead and pay the difference (at least we didn't have to pay the Washington sales tax because we showed them our Oregon driver's license). After making our way through the hoards of people and walking about a half of a mile to the bins where they keep the stuff, we loaded up our cart and headed for the exit.

The second mission in going to Seattle was the NW Steam Society's annual dinner. I HATE SEATTLE!! We had made hotel reservations at a place we had stayed at before, but Seattle is under road construction right now and we couldn't find it! We drove around and around trying to find the 8th Avenue Inn. Getting to 8th Avenue and going in the right direction was a feat in itself! They're building streetcar tracks or something, so virtually every street had some kind of construction on it. And even the ones that didn't, had barricades to turn you away from those that did! It was literally a case of, "you can't get there from here". Dave finally called for directions (it must have been a cold day in hell for him to do that) and the girl who answered the phone couldn't explain to us how to get there either. After about a half an hour driving around, we did manage to arrive at our destination. Then after we checked into our room, we discovered they had given us a Queen bed instead of the King we had reserved, so they moved us to another room. It took an hour just to get checked in and settled in the right room. The last time we stayed at this Inn, the people above us partied all night and we didn't get a bit of sleep, so we thought we'd outsmart them. We requested a room on the top floor this time. Guess what? The people still partied all night, but they were next door instead of above us! Anyway, the dinner was great and we enjoyed seeing a lot of old friends and getting caught up with the latest gossip in the steam world.

On Sunday, we had to skedaddle out of Seattle as we had a Blazer game that night in Portland. After the game, we were able to leave our equipment set up, so we left town for the coast a little bit earlier than normal. (Actually, it was an hour later because of Daylight Savings Time, but don't get me up on that soapbox!!) We headed back home in a driving rainstorm. We were glad we were driving the Suburban then, even though it had been a hassle winding it through the construction in Seattle. We had to reset all of our clocks when we got home because I wanted to get up early and go to my water aerobics class.

WAAA! I received my Medicare card in the mail this week. How do you think that makes me feel? So now I have till the 1st of July to make up my mind on what "supplemental" health insurance I want to have. I hate sifting through a bunch of insurance information trying to figure out which is the "best for me". Then to make sure that there is prescription coverage on top of that! At least they are giving me plenty of time and I am sure I will procrastinate until the last minute too.

No pictures this week. It was another one of those weeks where we took the camera everywhere, and never took it out of its case. We have a few projects on the agenda for this next week, so there may be some pics of those!

Happy St. Patty's day!!