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April 13, 2007

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

Where did this week go?

Dave made a quick round trip to Seattle on Saturday. Well, not really a quick trip. It is about a 10 hour round trip and he did it in a day. He had a Steam meeting and while he was up there he dropped by IKEA to pick up some reading/night lights for the bunkbeds that we bought on our last trip up there. I opted to stay at home and get caught up on my housework and yard work. It didn't turn out to be especially nice and spring-like as the weatherman predicted either. Sometimes they can get the weather so wrong.

We went out for brunch on Easter morning, along with everyone else. The local place that we picked was full of people. Doesn't anyone go to church anymore? Since we had celebrated our Easter with the family the week before, we just had a quiet day at home. No, we didn't go to the homeless shelter for our dinner either. I fixed some chicken and we had strawberry cheesecake for dessert.

This week Dave had an MRI on the shoulder that has been bothering him for quite some time. The x-rays didn't show any torn rotator cuff but the doctor wanted to make sure. So Dave had to enter the tube of hell (MRI) as I call it. I get claustrophobia really bad and I don't know how he can handle being enclosed in that machine. Anyway, I dropped him off at the hospital and then I ran around doing a bunch of errands that I needed to do. The procedure takes about 2 hours and that is just about as much time as I needed to run to Costco, the mall and pick up some vacuum cleaner bags. I timed it just right too as I just sat down in the hospital lobby when he came out. We headed over to West Linn after that and I dropped him off at the apartment at Lara's while I ran over to my mother's for an appointment with the VA representative. My Mom has qualified for widow's assistance from the Veteran's Administration because my Dad was a vet. This has been an ongoing event and finally got approved last fall, but since she has dementia, I was appointed fiduciary to handle her affairs. They had to interview my Mom to see if she is capable of handling her own finances. Then when they determined that she wasn't, they had to check me out to make sure that I won't run off with her allotment. That took a couple of hours to do and hopefully they will now get the ball rolling. It has only been a year and a-half since we applied. That is the Government for you.

We had dinner with our friends Rich and Deb Patterson that evening, and we had a great time getting caught up with their lives. Rich is the other half of the Blazer Broadcasting production team with Dave and they have been working together for a long time. We see Rich at the games but never get a chance to see Deb. They are quite a bit younger than we are, but we had such a pleasant evening talking that we were taking up space in the restaurant far longer than our meal lasted. We hope we can get together again.

We had a Blazer game to engineer on Wednesday night and then drove home after the game. That means it was once again 1:00 AM before we pulled in the driveway, so it was another short night and we were slugs all day on Thursday. I dragged myself out of bed and went to my aerobics class in the morning and then I had a Park and Rec Committee meeting after that. There was also a work party afterwards at the Waterfront Park project, but the soil was too wet to work with and I didn't feel like hauling cement pavers around, so I came back home.

There's a funny story about those lights that Dave picked up at IKEA. Well, it would be funny if it weren't so frustrating! The light fixtures were exactly what we were looking for when we decided to get something for the bunkbeds. And at IKEA, they were only $6.95 each! It was a great price for a combination reading/night light, so he got four, one for each bed. It was only after he got home that he discovered that - not only did they not come with light bulbs - they need some kind of exotic bulb that you can't find anywhere! He's been looking all week long on the Internet to try to find something and all he's found are bulbs that are out of stock and if they were available, they'd cost more than the fixture did! We have a little bit of time before we need them, but the search goes on for light bulbs!

Speaking of the bunkbeds, the "Costco Room" where they're going to be is coming along - slowly. The room is now wired and insulated and we'll have sheet rock on it this week. There's still a lot to do though, and I'm hoping it'll be done in another month.

We have spotted a herd of elk over on the island most of this week and there must be about 30 or 40 of them. They are enjoying the nice fresh spring grass that is all around. Speaking of wildlife, the birds were glad to see me back after my departure on Tuesday. They had completely cleaned out the feeders and the suet. You would think I was their only source for food!

It is back into town today to find out about Dave's shoulder. We are hoping it isn't going to be the knife and although the needle isn't anything to look forward to, it sure will make the shoulder feel better faster. We have another Blazer game on Saturday night (only two more to go!!) and then we will come back home on Sunday.