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IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

Last Friday, we drove into Portland as Dave had an invitation to attend the University Club's "Robby Burns" night. He went last year and thoroughly enjoyed it and was lucky enough to be invited back this year. If you are a single-malt scotch lover, this is the party for you. Each year, they sample about twelve different kinds of scotch while they eat Haggis and other Scottish delights and listen to a little Robert Burns poetry - at least enough to justify the evening as a "cultural event"! I am the designated driver who drops him off and then picks him up afterward.

Because of the Robby Burns event, we spent Friday night in West Linn. On Saturday, Lara and I went birthday shopping for Jordyn who will be two years old on February 1st. I can hardly believe that baby will be two; she is growing up much too fast for me. Anyway, I wanted to get her a couple of outfits and enlisted Lara to come along with me to check out the sizes. We went to my favorite children's store, Gymboree because they were having a huge sale. Unfortunately, the sale had started about two weeks before and many of the items had been picked over. We managed to find some tops and a couple of matching pants for her that were on sale. We also stopped and picked up some items for the birthday party this coming Sunday. The theme is going to be Mickey Mouse, Jordyn's favorite character. It should be lots of fun and hopefully I will have some pictures of the event.

I mentioned last week that we were going to attend our former neighbor's funeral on Saturday afternoon. The funeral was very nice and was well attended and I was glad I went, but we didn't know too many people there. It was mostly family and church members and as neighbors, we really didn't know a lot of either. We skipped the reception after the service and headed for home.

Monday, it was back into Portland as I had a follow-up doctor's appointment and Dave had a game. The doctor's appointment went fine and after lunch, I dropped him off at the Rose Garden so he could get set up for the broadcast that night. I ran a couple of errands and had my nails done. That evening, I picked up Dave after the game and we headed back to the coast. That got us home around midnight. I was still on jury duty until the end of the week, so I couldn't make too many plans ahead of time and needed to be close to home. Now however, it's over. Today was the last day I had to be available for selection and there were no trials scheduled. So for the month, I was excused twice, called in to be in the jury pool twice and not selected for a jury either time I went in. All in all, not too bad.

Tuesday was my Garden Club meeting and we had a nice video by Anne Jaeger of the Oregonian who spoke on several topics: dahlias, lawns, flowering trees and clematis. We also saw a video on the Shore Acres Garden in Coos Bay. The next time I'm down by Coos Bay, I sure would like to visit that place. It was the home of the Simpson Lumber magnate and later was made into a state park. It overlooks the ocean and has a variety of plants that bloom all year around.
Our garden club is now getting ready to start working on our plant sale in May. We will meet in a couple of weeks to pot up sedums. But, pretty much from now until May, we'll be "non-stop" planting for the sale, which will be held on Mother's Day weekend.

Dave had to return to Portland on Wednesday for another Blazer game and I didn't go because of jury duty. Luckily, I wasn't called to report in, but I had to be available just the same. It was fortunate that I stayed here, as my sister-in-law who lives next door had an emergency and I had to take her down to Tillamook to the hospital. Leanna had a reaction to some medication that she was taking and her face was all swollen up and red. Her eyes were nearly swollen shut and she wouldn't have been able to drive herself. Also, our neighbor who lives next door to Leanna had a heart attack the day before and was rushed to the same hospital. So while I was waiting for Leanna in the ER, I ran upstairs and visited with my other neighbor. She is doing better and will be coming home soon.

We have had a mild January (even though it has rained a lot) but on the few nice days that we had, I was able to get outdoors and do a little yard work. I also gave the car a good washing - again! It sure doesn't take much for the car to get really dirty when we are driving back and forth to Portland all the time. Dave spent the night in West Linn after the game and came home on Thursday. He detoured through Astoria so he could get the oil changed and get new keyless entry remotes for the new Suburban. While he was there, they washed his car for him. That's not fair! He had a little extra time before he had to be in Astoria, so he took a side road through Jewell and past the elk preserve. Neither one of us had ever taken that route, even though we've driven past the junction a million times. He saw hundreds of elk and said it was a very picturesque drive. I think we'll pack a picnic and take the trip later in the spring.

Dave got word that the company that hosts this website is going to be shutting down that part of their service in March, so he's been frantically working on preserving all 5 1/2 years of "Jan's Journal" history before the big shutdown. After he gets it all back on our computer, we'll be moving everything to another host. He only has about three weeks to get that done because we'll be making our annual trip to Arizona next month and it needs to be done before then.

Other than that, life has been just about the same for me down at the coast.