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IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

Since it was President's Day on Monday and most people had the day off, Lara and Greg came down with the girls for the long weekend and we put them to work. We spent three days pruning and cutting down trees and brush around the place. The 20-foot high cedar hedge that runs the length of the front of the house is dying from some sort of fungus and so Greg cut down two of the plants that were already brown. He says they will all die eventually, but we are only going to cut down what is dead. The trunks of those two hedge plants were more than a foot across! We hate to see that hedge go, because in knocks down a lot of the noise from the highway. Greg also cut out a tree that was too close to another tree in the front of our house and also pruned the Japanese Lace Leaf Maple and the Umbrella tree. All in all, we had about four huge flatbed trailer loads heaped full of tree branches and we hauled it all down to Kahrs' burn pile. The place sure does look a lot better and we are really appreciative of all the help. The weather was on the damp side, but it was not cold out so we worked in the rain.

Since it was Valentines Day on Sunday, we decided to go out for breakfast but had to wait patiently for Jaysa to tie her shoes first. She is so proud of this new accomplishment! We went out for breakfast at the local place that Dave and I always go on Sunday, the Bunkhouse at Bayside Gardens. This is where most of the locals hang out and it is always fun to get the latest gossip from everyone. The food isn't bad either.

As I mentioned last week, we took in the reader's theater at Nehalem on Sunday. The Riverbend Players are doing a Dorothy Sayers play called "Love All". Since Dave isn't in this one, we wanted to go and support the group. It was very entertaining and we enjoyed the performance. If you're in the area, they're finishing up their run at the North Coast Recreation District this weekend.

We had special visitors drop by on Monday. Bill and Dottie Schonely were in the neighborhood and stopped in for a few minutes. Bill was the original play-by-play announcer for the Portland Trail Blazers and Dave worked with him for many years on the broadcasts. He is still doing PR work for the team and we get to see him regularly, but it was the first time they had been to our house. It was nice of them to take the time to do that...they're really great people.

Dave had to go back into Portland on Tuesday for a Blazer broadcast and I opted to stay home. He didn't spend the night in West Linn but instead, drove back home after the game and got in around 1 a.m. Since I was by myself for the evening, Des and Donna invited me to attend the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Feed put on by their church. They serve eggs, sausages, pancakes and applesauce. It is a pretty good fundraiser, and it's worthwhile as the money goes to the local food bank. I think the groundhog is mixed up about six more weeks of winter. We are having spring-like weather this week. I even got the lawn mowed and it's February. The temperatures have been in the 60's and it is sunny and clear out. I planted some sugar snap peas this week and some pansies and primroses. Unfortunately, the deer came in and did a little pruning on my one and only tulip that was just about ready to bloom and ate all my pansies and primroses! I was so angry. I anticipated a problem and had bought some deer repellent at the nursery, but hadn't used it yet. So after that, I went out and sprinkled the repellent around. It was like shutting the barn door after the horses got out! We took this picture after they got the first plant. They made a return visit the next night and got the other two! It is so discouraging to plant something and then have those critters come along and eat them. I went over to Cart'm and bought a couple of glass windows to put over my pea crop so hopefully the critters won't be getting to them.

The weather was so nice that on Thursday, we took a 3-mile hike around Soapstone Lake. The lake is located about 15 miles up Highway 53 and we drive by the trailhead every time we go to and from Portland. We have always wanted to stop and hike it, but you know how that goes. A walking group from the North Coast Recreation District planned the hike for that day and so we decided to go with them. We are a little sore, but we had a great time! They do a different hike every Thursday, so when we get back, we may join them again. We are heading into Portland today for a couple of Blazer games this weekend and then it is off to Phoenix for a week to visit my sister. I am enjoying the sunshine here, but I'm sure I will enjoy the warmer sunshine there even more. I will try to post next Friday from Arizona and I'll be sure to take lots of pictures.

By the way, a technical note from my webmaster. We still haven't made the switch to our new host, and this old one may pull the plug at any moment. It may not happen before the first of the month, but if you come on here in the next couple of weeks and find that this journal isn't here - let me know so we can get things going with the new host. Otherwise, hang in there because I will be back!