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March 11, 2011

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

I had another busy week trying to get ready to leave on Wednesday for Arizona for a few days to visit my sister, Jeanne.

I had signed up to help with the Master Gardner's "pruning day" on Saturday and there were about six of us that worked on two different yards in Wheeler. I was a little nervous about pruning someone else's plants for fear of destroying them, but it worked out well. The garden gods were even on our side as we had pretty good weather on Saturday to do our project. The first house we did needed major yard work and after spending almost two hours we managed to have the place look a little better. The second house was like a park and there wasn't a lot of overgrowth, so it made it a lot easier. I got done just in time to get back home and change my clothes so that Dave and I could drive into Portland for a Blazer broadcast.

We spent the night in West Linn that night and then on Sunday we drove home via way of Lincoln City so we could attend a memorial for a friend who had passed away. She was 94 years old and was actually the mother of one of Dave's high school classmates. Strangely, we had kept in contact with her over the past years but Dave hadn't seen her son since high school. It was fun to watch Dave try to recognize his friend whom he hadn't seen in years. He finally decided on one guy who had had long gray hair pulled back in a ponytail and wore a leather fedora! Once they recognized each other they had a nice long chat. His mother was quite the watercolor artist and I was an admirer of her work. I am hoping that once her estate is settled, I might get a chance to purchase one of her paintings.

The weather was promising on Monday and I worked out in the yard trying to pull as many weeds as possible so they wouldn't get a strong hold while I was on vacation. I also planted my snow peas and did some pruning. We just finished our Master Gardener's pruning class so I felt a little confident at what I was doing. We also packed for our trip to Phoenix as we were leaving on Wednesday morning with two of our granddaughters, Ashtin and Paige.

The granddaughters met us in West Linn to spend the night and the next morning, we caught our flight. Boy, were they excited! Even though the flight down was pretty normal, it was fun to watch their reactions on take-off and landing. They aren't exactly what I would call "white-knuckle" fliers, but they aren't exactly comfortable doing it either! After we landed it was 80 degrees in Phoenix and we picked up our rental car and headed for my sister's. She had dinner waiting for us and we all were in bed early.

We attended a spring training baseball game on Thursday afternoon. It was the Seattle Mariners against the Los Angeles Angels. The Mariners won and the granddaughters had a great time. Between the two of them they managed to catch three game balls and even got one of them autographed after they stood in this line for a half hour. It was warm (85 degrees) with a slight breeze. Perfect weather for baseball. Perfect weather for almost anything as a matter of fact! We've been watching the weather back home - they've had gale warnings and rain, rain, rain. Sorry 'bout them!

Other plans that we have scheduled while we are down in Phoenix is a water park that we are going to explore this weekend and another amusement park where they can play miniature golf and go on some rides. They'll have a chance to meet some cousins that are the same age and we're hoping we can spend at least part of one day with them. It'll be a quick trip, as we will be headed home again on Monday.

I know I said I'd have pictures this trip, but two things got left behind when we packed - and one of those was the camera! One of us left it behind, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't me! If we get anything at all, it will be from the girl's cameras or from our cell phone cameras.