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January 11, 2008

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

After trekking through snow on our way back into town for a game on Saturday, we decided to spend the night in West Linn and left early Sunday morning to head back home again. It seems like every trip we've made across the coast range lately has been in some kind of snowstorm! We're so glad we have a four-wheel drive vehicle because we don't have much of a problem in any kind of bad weather. We only had one other game this week, which was Wednesday and now we are home for good for about two weeks. I am so looking forward in being home for a while and not living out of a suitcase, especially after the month of December, which was crazy as we had only spent about 8 days at home.

The weather has been just terrible so far this month, which is unusual because the coast is usually quite pleasant in January. There is so much to be done at home and we really haven't cleaned up from the hurricane we had the first of December. Now if the weather would only cooperate so I can get outside to do something! Dave caught this photo of the snow up on Neah-Kah-Nie Mountain the other morning that shows the little snow that we had. Remember a year ago, we had a foot of snow, so this is nothing!

I started back to my water aerobics on Monday. They shut down the pool during the Christmas break, and we were off for three weeks. There were only six of us that made it the first day but the weather was pretty bad and more came as the week went on. I got filled in on all the latest gossip around town and it felt good to be back into the swing of things. Most of the ladies that come to the class spend most of their time exercising their jaws more than the rest of their bodies but they are a great bunch of gals.

We raced home on Thursday because the Park Committee had scheduled an early afternoon work party at the waterfront park. I helped out for a couple of hours moving wood chips and creating a rock waterway for the water to flow from the downspouts. The water was running down the slope eroding the soil and causing plant damage. It was cold outside but we didn't get too wet.

It is getting to be that dreaded time of year and I have been busy getting our tax information gathered up. We made an appointment in February to go see our accountant and so that gave me incentive to get things together.

I was looking over our Visa statement the other day and noticed a $21 debit for some cinema tickets that were purchased and I thought to myself, we haven't been to the movies lately but better check with Dave just in case my memory had lapsed. Sure enough, someone in California had purchased tickets using his credit card. Dave immediately notified the bank about the unauthorized use and they blocked his card. This is okay, except we didn't know that they had blocked it and when we went to use our credit card to buy some gas, it was denied! Since the gas station was in the vicinity of the bank, we stopped by and discovered that another purchase had been made with our credit card but this time it was for $200! According to the bank, the ID thieves usually purchase something small to test the stolen card number and then go onto bigger purchases. In the process of making all the calls that go with reporting the fraud, Dave discovered that someone had tried to make two more big purchases, but that they were denied. That was evidently after he made the first report. I am so glad we discovered this before it got out of hand. The only thing is that it is such an inconvenience to have to notify businesses that are authorized to charge things to our Visa to let them know of the cancelled card. Dave has to go to Seattle next weekend and he had made hotel reservations using the old card. I'm sure that will be a problem when he can't produce that same card (the bank cut it in half yesterday!) to charge the room fee. It's all such a hassle.

As I said, we don't have games for the next two weeks, so - except for Dave's trip to Seattle - we're going to stay right here! We would like to get some stuff done now because we'll be staying with Lara in West Linn after our new granddaughter arrives on February 1st.