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February 18, 2011

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

What a surprise to wake up to see white stuff all over the ground (but it didn't last long)! With all of the nice weather that I have been bragging about for the past weeks, I keep forgetting that we are still having winter. I can only dream of sunshine and flowers for now.

Saturday, I drove to the Seven D's nursery in Seaside as they were putting on a seminar on composting. Unfortunately, the speaker got his dates mixed up and didn't show up for the class. The nursery gave us a $5 coupon and a discount to the Yard, Garden and Patio Show that is coming up this weekend. With my $5 coupon, I came home with a new daphne plant (with flowers already on it) and planted it next to the other daphne plant that I have hoping that it will take the hint and bloom too. I have had the one plant for three years and it hasn't bloomed once! Daphne is my favorite springtime blossom and I am not giving up. Also while I was out and about Saturday, I decided to drive up to Costco and get a few things. The wind was blowing pretty strong and when I left with my groceries the wind caught my cart and my package of paper towels went flying. I had to chase them all over the parking lot! I think we clocked the wind at our place that day at about 50 mph!

I went to the Riverbend Reader's Theater performance last Saturday night to see their production of "Dorothy Parker and Friends on Love". Dave had the part of Dorothy's pal (and fellow Algonquin Round Table member) Robert Benchley and did a fantastic job. The play was better than I thought because Dorothy Parker was quite the cynic when it came to relationships. I think she was married four times and died a very unhappy person. This production concentrated on some of the less controversial times of her career and focused on the "Men Don't Make Passes at Girls Who Wear Glasses" material and skipped over some of the negative stuff she was known for.

We have some solar powered lights that we usually keep out on the deck for accent lighting at night. We try to remember to bring them in during the windstorms and they take a beating when we forget. I decided to bring them in and "de-spider" them last week. It took a lot to get the critters out of them and to get them cleaned up, but that's what rainy days are for. We got new re-chargeable batteries for them and as soon as spring gets here, we'll set them out again.

On Monday, Dave had to get up early and drive to Hillsboro to have a heart monitor installed. It's something his Cardiologist wanted done so he came home all wired up and had to wear this contraption for three days. He had it removed on Thursday and will wait until March 2nd to find out what all this means. Meanwhile, I am still taking his blood pressure each day. He seems to be back to his old self again.

This week in my Master Gardener's class we learned all about propagation and fruit trees. It was another interesting day trying to absorb all that my little brain can hold. We even got to bring home some samples of our lesson. I had propagated some Spanish Lavender and we also learned how to separate Day Lillys and Dahlias. Fun, fun.

My oldest granddaughter, Ashtin received her little piglets that she will raise and train for the fair this summer. They are so cute and tiny now but just wait until July. They will weigh about 240 lbs by then. The names she has chosen are "Charlotte" and "Clarke" and this is her third year of raising pigs. The money that she receives from the auction of her pigs will be going towards a field trip that her 6th grade class will take next spring to Washington, D.C. I sure envy her as I have never been to the nation's capitol myself.

Today, our high school class will get together for a luncheon. We decided at our 50th reunion last summer that we would like to meet for lunch once a month, so I will be joining some of them for that. After that, I am planning on driving into Portland to the Yard, Garden and Patio show. I went last year and really enjoyed it. They have a lot of great seminars at the show and I hope to get in on a couple of those.

This promises to be another busy weekend. Dave has two performances - one on Friday night and the final performance on Saturday night. The cast members will get together for a potluck on Sunday night. If the weather isn't stormy, I plan on helping with the estuary cleanup in Wheeler on Saturday. Who said that being retired is boring?