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December 18, 2009
IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!
Well, not really. This is another one of those weeks where I'm going to have to post this a day early. My webmaster is tied up Thursday and Friday and so he'll have to get this posted before heading to Portland for a Blazer game.
We have been really enjoying the holiday season and have been taking in lots of merriment with friends and family this week.
Last Friday night Dave took me out for Chinese food and a play that was being performed in Tillamook. The restaurant was new to us and I don't know if we will be going back as the service was terrible and I managed to scorch the roof of my mouth of some extremely hot Chinese food. But we did enjoy the play...it was so funny. It was a comedy called "Christmas Belles" and took place in some tiny town in Texas involving the lives of these three sisters. Dave was a little disappointed in the seats we got because the woman had explained over the phone that they were very good seats but we were located up in the back row and Dave had a hard time hearing the "punch" lines. But they were sold out and we were able to sit together even though we didn't make reservations until two days before!
Saturday night, our Park and Recreation Committee got together for our annual Christmas potluck. The theme this year was "Italian" and so I brought Spumoni ice cream and biscotti to go with the spaghetti. We had so much food. I didn't sleep well all night from eating so much. The next morning, after our usual Sunday morning breakfast at the Bunkhouse (don't ask how I managed to eat that), we headed into Portland.
We went to another fun party on Sunday evening. The Blazer's TV announcer hosts a get-together for all of the Blazer Broadcasting folks each year. We missed last year because of the weather, and so we didn't know exactly where their new house was. We got to the right street, but there must be some sort of rule saying that street addresses can't be seen more than five feet from the house in that neighborhood. And it was getting pretty dark, so for all practical purposes, the houses were anonymous. Dave finally parked the car and started walking from house to house. Even up close he couldn't see the numbers, so he was sort of nonchalantly glancing through windows to see if he recognized anyone. He was pretty sure he was going to get shot before he found what he was looking for! He should have gotten a clue with an NBA basketball hoop in their driveway! Once he found it, he came and got me in the car and immediately another five cars that had been circling the block saw him and followed us in. No one could find the place! Anyway, once we got there, it was a very nice function and we enjoyed ourselves.
We had a wild goose chase on Monday. I have to tell you the Zales Jewelry story. A couple of years ago, we stopped in a Zales in a mall and Dave bought me a pair of diamond earrings for Christmas. They will insure them against any damage as long as I bring them in each year to be cleaned and inspected. Since the deadline is the end of the year, I have been trying to get in to get that little job done for several weeks. I finally got back to the mall, only to find that the store was closed! They had folded up their tents and slipped away during the middle of the night. When I called to find out what was going on, they told me that they closed several of the smaller stores and that the only place still open was downtown. Well, Monday we decided to head downtown and get the earrings taken care of. We couldn't find them online, so I called them again and asked where they were. She gave me the address and we set out. Since downtown Portland is almost impossible to get to (much less park in) by car, we parked at Lloyd Center and rode the train downtown. We had to walk a few blocks and when we got to the address, it was the wrong jewelry store! It was Zell Brothers, not Zales. The woman who had answered my call said she thought we wanted Zells and didn't bother to correct me when I asked about Zales! Anyway, they were real nice and they found out that the only Zales stores that are open are at Clackamas Town Center and downtown. Downtown Salem! I guess that's what they thought when I first called. The information phone is answered in Texas or someplace and I guess they didn't know Salem from Portland! So, the whole thing was a wild goose chase. Then to compound our problem, we missed two trains trying to get back to the Lloyd Center. We ran after the second one only to have him close the doors in our face! We hit the "open door" button, but the driver just ignored it and drove off. We finally got back to the car on the next train, and I'm pretty sure it will be a long time before we venture back to downtown Portland! Since it was getting late and we didn't want to fight the crowds at Clackamas Town Center, we decided to call it a day.
The next morning, I ventured out by myself, drove straight to Clackamas Town Center, and found the right Zales. After they cleaned and inspected my earrings, I was on my way in an hour. I really felt bad that I had wasted half a day on Monday trying to accomplish the same thing.
Another story. Dave owns two identical Leatherman tools. He had put his original Leatherman away when his dad died because he preferred to wear his father's. Well, his father's Leatherman had gotten damaged and until he can get it fixed, he wanted to go back to his first one. But, the problem was that he couldn't remember where he had put it. So of course, he asked me if I had seen it. No, I say but I will sleep on it. I usually can find things after a good nights sleep. Anyway, the next day, I searched everywhere in all the drawers where I thought he might have put it with no luck. I did find a lot of other things I have been looking for while on my big search though but no Leatherman. I finally decided that the only place left that I hadn't searched was the junk drawer in the kitchen where I keep such things as pencils, rubber bands, notepads, tissues, etc. but I wasn't sure I would find it there. Guess what, there it was, lying in among the other discarded stuff in the drawer. I was so proud of myself! I had a reputation to live up to and I wasn't going to stop until I found that Leatherman. When Dave came into the house a few minutes later, I did one of those "which hand" things. When he picked a hand, and I held out the Leatherman, the look on his face was priceless! I swear he thinks I have a built in homing device.
On Wednesday, we headed back home from town. I guess Wheeler had a major water problem while we were gone and several water pipes had burst from the freezing temperatures that we had had the week before. Now that is has thawed, the reservoirs are losing water at an alarming rate. They were able to find a couple of problems where water was running out of unoccupied homes. I could imagine coming home to a basement full of water! We managed to luck out, but some of the houses down here weren't so lucky and they have major damage. Most of the damaged homes were part-timers who didn't think to turn their water off before they left after the summer season.
Another party on Wednesday night with the Emergency Committee, and then I am done partying for a while. I decided to boil some eggs to make deviled eggs to take to the party and I had a heck of a time peeling them. They were too fresh and the shells did not come off very well. To top it off, when I mixed up the yolk I put too much salt in them and so I ended up throwing them all away. I ran to the store really quick and picked up the old standby of cream cheese and salsa.
Dave spent the remainder of the week interviewing applicants for jobs at City Hall. There are two positions open, an office assistant and a public works technician. The city manager wanted the city council's help in screening the applicants, so he'll be there doing that for the next several days between running back and forth to Portland for Blazer broadcasts. There were a lot of people applying and it was hard to narrow it down to the finalists.
Since we are all partied out from last week, we are going to lay low this weekend.
I'm not real sure how we did it, but we managed to spend two days with the grandkids and never did get the camera out of the case. So, no pictures this week.
