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IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

What a great weekend. Why is it you have to cram so much into one weekend? Why is it when it rains it pours? We can have nothing going on for weeks and then everything comes at once. We began by getting up at "oh-dark-thirty" on Saturday morning to be in Seattle (five hour drive) by 11:00 a.m. for Dave's board meeting with the steam society. I enjoy going along on those board meeting trips to visit with Shirley Will, the widow of one of the long-time steamers in the group. Shirley hosts the group at her place, which is centrally located in Seattle, making it relatively easy for all the board members (well, except for us) to get the meetings. It's a way for her to stay involved with the group and she likes to have me tag along on these trips. Besides, Dave says he takes me along so that we can use the "diamond" (car pool) lane in Seattle traffic - making it a lot easier to get through town. Since it takes two people in the car when traveling in that lane, he can't do that when he's by himself! After finishing the meeting and having lunch with that group, we made a bee-line for Vancouver (three more hours) to catch the tail end of a birthday party for Dave's Uncle Nick. Nick turned 90 this week and his family threw him a party. We got there just it the "nick" of time, as most of the cake was gone and the gifts had been opened. Still, it was great to see some cousins and Uncle Nick again and talk with him for a few minutes before he had to head out for his kidney dialysis treatment. He is living in a very nice retirement home and loves it. Then again, the women to men ratio there is about three to one, so why wouldn't he love it!

It was on to our next engagement (one more hour), which was a party for our dear friend Terrie Boyd. She has finally retired and they will be moving to Florida in the next few weeks. I will miss her. She had reserved the Claremont Golf Club's facility and had a catered meal and all the wine and beer you could possible drink. Unfortunately, since I was still recovering from my diverticulitis and on antibiotics, I had to watch what I ate and drank. There was also a disc jockey present and he played songs from the 60's, 70's and 80's to which Dave and I danced till we dropped. Literally! Between Dave's knee and my back - and nine hours behind the wheel - we didn't last very long! After it was over, we helped clean up the mess and then spent the night with Stan and Terrie at their place. Their daughter Melissa was visiting from Florida, so we also had the opportunity to get caught up with some of her life as well.

Sunday morning, after a hearty breakfast with the Boyd's at the Reedville Cafe, we headed over to Tigard High School to watch Paige play in a soccer game. We haven't seen many of her games this year and we have noticed how she has built up such confidence while she is out on the field playing. They won, although she didn't score during this game which is unusual for her. She assisted on a couple of goals the other girls scored and she was directing the other members of her team where to be on the field. It has been such fun to see her mature over the years. We also saw Leslie and Jason - and Ashtin was there with her new set of braces. Lara and Jadyn were also there, so we were able to catch up with most of the family - at least as much as you can catch up during a soccer game. After the game, we made one more stop down the street to visit with Kay and her daughter Terri. We enjoy visiting with them and besides, I needed to use the facilities and Dave needed a cup of coffee for our trip back home. As I've explained before, Kay is a "shirttail" relative (Dave's mother's twin sister's husband's niece) and is probably more family to us than some of our "blood" relatives.

I made a follow-up visit with the doctor on Tuesday and my colon seems to be healing but I will give it a couple of weeks before I introduce any "raw" food to it. I will probably have a colonoscopy sometime in the future after things settle down and I am NOT looking forward to that.

Most of the rest of the week has been pretty quiet. We have had a couple of wind and rain storms arrive and so the first nice day we had, I managed to get outside and put my garden to bed for the winter. I pulled out all of the remaining carrots and have them all washed and ready to eat. The wind had blown the surviving sweet peas down so I pulled them up too. I would like to grow some vegetables during the winter months, but I think I will do that in the greenhouse. Dave has been at rehearsal twice a week for their next theater production, and has also been keeping himself busy in the boat barn - cleaning it out and trying to make a few bucks by stripping copper wire that he's been hoarding for years. Copper prices are up high enough that he might be able to make some spare change by selling it now. We're going to need that - because of the labor dispute, the NBA has officially dropped several games off the schedule at the start of the season, so our income is taking another hit.

After a summer of inactivity, we have been having quite the time with raccoons lately. I have had to take all my bird feeders in at night. The critters even tore down the bird suet feeder and licked that clean. I found the feeder receptacle for the squirrel feeder down at the bottom of the hill. They have even been coming during the daytime and Dave has been doing a lot of target practice on them with the BB gun. It doesn't seem to faze them as they scurry off and then return a few minutes later. It is a constant battle and I'd say that between the raccoons and the mighty raccoon hunter - we have a standoff.