Jan's Journal

February 11, 2011

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

Boy, do the days go by when you are on the go!

We drove into West Linn last Saturday to celebrate our youngest granddaughter's third birthday. Although Jordyn's "official" birthday was on February 1st, she had been celebrating all week and the grand finale was Saturday with all the relatives. She was excited anyway with grandparents and her aunt and uncle who had flown all the way from Alaska to join in the celebration. Afterwards, Dave & I headed back for the coast after stopping at Trader Joe's (I love Trader Joe's) to pick up a few things. We got back home that evening.

On Super Bowl Sunday we were scheduled to see a play in Tillamook, so we decided to record the game and watch it when we got back home. The play was a mystery and was well done. Since it was Chinese New Year, we stopped at the Chinese restaurant and had dinner before we ventured home. We arrived at home and watched most of the football game. Just before the game was over (about two minutes to go) the DVR ran out of time! So we had to get on the computer to find out the final score. That was kind of frustrating. I was a little disappointed in the commercials this year. They seemed a little extreme and there was a lot of promotion for new movie releases. The commercials are the main reason I watch the game but this year I was cheering for the winning team. I have always liked the Green Bay Packers.

Do you want to hear about something creepy that happened to me? Well, I am going to tell you anyway. I decided to put on a pair of slipper socks because my feet were cold. After I put them on I felt something crawling in one of my socks. I immediately screamed and pulled my sock off and there was this HUGE spider trying to escape! I shook it out of my sock and had Dave remove it and flush it down the toilet. I felt very lucky as the spider could have bitten me! Now whenever I put on my shoes or socks I always check them out. I had a friend who was bitten on the foot by a spider and she almost lost a toe.

I went to my Master Gardener's class on Tuesday and we learned all about pesticides, fungicides and insecticides. We had a bugologist talk about "good" bugs and "bad" bugs, and how to tell the difference. I found out that bugs really get a bad rap and that most of them are good for your garden. Of course that doesn't mean that there aren't a few "bad" apples out there that can really raise havoc in your garden. Anyway, it was very interesting. We also had a lady talk to us about all kinds of coastal plants that we can grow in our area. I am amazed at how much I am enjoying my classes.

Dave had to go into town for a broadcast on Monday and then stayed overnight as he had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday. Actually, he had to go to a lab where they did an "Echocardiogram" on him. It's all part of the testing that the cardiologist has ordered to try to find the reason for the strokes. He was in and out of the lab in an hour. He'll get a heart monitor next week and after they get the results from all of those tests, he'll see all the doctors one last time the first part of March.

Dave has been in final rehearsals for "Dorothy Parker and Friends on Love" which opens this weekend and continues through next weekend. Dorothy and her pal Robert Benchley (Dave) are the "glue" that ties all of the skits on "love" together for the Valentine's Day performance. The timing of the plays turned out to be good, because as recently as a couple of weeks ago, he was still having problems talking - tough when you're doing Reader's Theater! He had final dress rehearsal last night and the rest of the cast said he was his old self, so that's good news.

We had a crisis at City Hall this week. The gal who works in the office and does all the administrative work for the City up and quit. She wasn't happy with her job and decided she had had enough. This left everything in a turmoil and I volunteered to help out by spending most of one afternoon trying to type up the City Council minutes from last month so that they could be ready for their meeting next week. What a job! Now I remember why I am retired. Hopefully, a temporary worker will be in to help until they can hire someone full time.

Our weather has been so wonderful and even when it rains, I am thankful we dont have the snow and ice that most of the country is having. I am patiently watching the daffodils and daphne getting ready to burst into bloom. My seeds arrived in the mail that I had ordered and now I just have to wait until the ground gets a little warmer before I can plant.