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December 17, 2010

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

Christmas day is getting closer and closer and I seem to get further and further behind. I finally got all my Christmas cards and letters mailed out this week. I had drafted our annual letter for Dave to review and place photos in it, but he has been busy editing the quarterly Steam Gage for the NW Steam Society. That job is always so time consuming for him. Anyway, he finished that project and then tackled the holiday letter.

So the cards are in the mail, and that is one more thing I can cross off my list. I still haven't finished all my shopping and plan on finishing that up when we are in Portland this week. I don't mind Christmas shopping as much as I hate the crowds and trying to find a parking place. Then next week will be the big push to get all the gifts wrapped and get ready for the family coming here to our place for Christmas.

This has been a very busy week around here. We attended the city of Wheeler's little Christmas festival on Saturday night. In spite of the terrible weather that we had all day, there were quite a few people that turned out. Earlier in the day, winds were blowing at 40 miles per hour and we had about 2 inches of rain. But the wind and rain died down and we had about 50 people gathered for the festivities that evening. Youngsters from the Mudd-Nick Foundation (a local kid's activity group) came and sang Christmas carols and then Santa arrived on the Fire District's brand new fire truck. He is always a big hit, and arriving with lights and siren just added to the excitement.

Sunday night was our Park and Recreation committee's Christmas potluck and gift exchange. We had great food and a fun time opening and fighting over various gifts that were brought. The way the gift game goes is everyone draws a number and - in order - either picks a gift from the pile or takes someone else's gift that they have already opened. If that happens, you get to choose another gift. The gift I brought - a birdhouse - was one of the most popular. It changed hands the maximum three times! I came home with a scented candle.

Dave had a doctor's appointment on Monday afternoon and so we headed into Tillamook. Dave wasn't happy that he had to wait to see the doctor and after a half-hour stewing in the waiting room, ended up telling them to forget it and canceled his appointment. He said he felt better anyway. He had to make the appointment three weeks ago and that was long enough for him to get over whatever was bothering him. It's too bad that the doctors are so darn busy that you have to schedule so far in advance, and then wait once you get there. We did have a couple of other errands to do while we were in Tillamook, so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

We did those and then stopped off at a Chinese restaurant for dinner. We ordered the "special" of the day and they gave us so much food that we could have split an order. This was a huge plate of 20 pieces of General Tso's chicken, 7 pieces of fried shrimp, fried rice and egg foo yung - all for less than $9.00! I ended up bringing some of mine home for another meal!

There was another potluck on Wednesday that I attended with the Garden Club. It was another one of those gift exchanges like before and this time I came home with a tool that I can use in the garden. It is one of these 15-in-1 multi-tools and I think I am going to have to put my name on it, as Dave has been showing some interest in it too! I am about potlucked out and wish that all this festivity didn't have to come all at once.

As I said, it was a busy week, with meetings or social events every day. Monday, Dave was at a meeting of the Historical Society and Tuesday was the auditor's report to the City Council. In addition to my Garden Club affair on Wednesday, Dave had to attend the Port District meeting that night and then yesterday, we both were at an Emergency Committee meeting at City Hall. And I sometimes wonder why we can't get anything else done around here!!

I was in the stationery store the other day and ran across some jigsaw puzzles that I thought would be fun to do so I picked one up for myself. It has 500 pieces to it and I figured that it would be kind of easy but as it turned out, it has been quite a challenge. I have managed to get the border of the puzzle put together but trying to stay focused on the rest of it is something else. I really don't seem to have time to work on it so I do a couple of pieces a day and I figure by this time next year I might have it done!

As if we didn't have enough to eat, we went out for dinner again last night. A local restaurant, The Rising Star Cafe', has a pasta special every Thursday night. They serve a big plate of pasta along with salad and bread for just ten bucks. We've been meaning to get in there to try it for quite a while, but this is pretty much the first time we've been in town on Thursday to give it a try.

We are headed back into Portland today for three Blazer broadcasts in four days. We will be coming back home on Tuesday. While we are in town, we have been invited to board the sternwheeler "Portland" to watch the Christmas ships parade on the Willamette River.