Friday, August 29, 2008

Birthdays!

Happy Birthday!
To
My niece Katie Aug. 30th
My cousin Russell Aug. 30th
My niece Lillie Sept. 2nd

Remembering Mom, "Lc", who would have celebrated her 86th Birthday on August 31st.

Friday, the Beginning of a Four Day Weekend

Today I was up at 7:00 a.m. for a meeting at 7:30. I was able to make the call from home. After that I was at Curves by 9:00 a.m.. Then on my way to Target I decided to go to Great Clips for a haircut (actually to fix what I tried to trim myself). I did some quick shopping at Target then when I got home I decided I wanted to mow the lawn. They say we're supposed to get rain this weekend.

I mowed our front lawn and the front lawn of the house across the street which is vacant and for sale since our good neighbor Mike passed away in June. Then I tackled our backyard which hadn't been mowed in a couple of weeks.

After I "did my hair" and showered, Wally and I ran an errand to the credit union. We decided to go see The Dark Knight but since we had time to kill before the movie started we went across the street to AAA. There we picked up some maps for our upcoming trip to San Francisco.

The movie was good and afterwards we went out for Teriyaki. We were home by 7:30 which made for a nice day. Wally also waxed my car this morning, which was very nice.

I bought a new digital camera this week. The Olympus Stylus 1010. I'm very excited to have a new camera. It's my second digital camera. (That's not counting the digital I bought for 35.00 at an on-line auction that turned out to be really old and clunky.) If anyone collects old digital cameras, just let me know and I'll send it your way. It actually records pictures on a 3.5 disk or a regular card. I never paid the money to buy a card for it. I guess that's one good thing I did.

Tomorrow it's oil change for the car, laundry, vacuuming, clean the bathroom and grocery shopping. Just a typical Saturday. I'll also find time to run to the library to pick up The Kite Runner which they have on hold for me.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Things I Never Mentioned

Have you ever had something embarrassing, sad or just plain stupid happen to you and you don't tell a single person about it? I have two confessions to make right here and now. I'm not sure why I didn't casually mention them as an occurrence before. Maybe it was because when they happened my first emotion was anger, then it turned into "did I really just do that?". It's in the category of when something happens to you or you do something and you wish you could reverse time and prevent it from ever happening.

Both of my incidents involve glass, I guess that says something about me. The first one happened in June 2007 as I was getting ready to go on our family vacation. Our annual vacation takes some preplanning. We like to haul most of our groceries from home. It was a lovely June evening and I was shopping at WinCo. I remember taking my grocery cart out to the car. I started loading the bags in the trunk. I had bought two cases of Thomas Kemper soda pop. I think they were about 6.00 or 7.00 a box. There are the ones in the glass bottles and you get assorted flavors. These cases weren't as big as the ones at Costco.

Well I picked up one case from the cart and somehow it swung out of my hand and came crashing down between my car and the one next to it. I heard the tinkling glass and when I picked up the case, which was fully intact on the outside, soda pop came oozing out the corner.

There I stood in the parking lot with a cardboard box of broken glass and soda dripping on the pavement. I didn't quite know what to do. I wasn't going to go back in and pay for another case, I figured the other one I had would have to do.

So I did what I thought was the best solution and to save face. I took the sticky, glass tinkling, dripping box and put it in the bottom of a shopping cart in the cart station in the parking lot. Bless the store person who found it and cleaned up after me!

The other glass breaking incident I had was earlier this year. I was doing food at a wedding reception at a church I had never been to before. The nice man met me in the parking lot to let me into the building. I parked out back so I could unload the truck into the kitchen. I arrived about 30 minutes before my helpers were to arrive.

At the church you always have to prop the back door open with a chair and take the wheelie cart from the kitchen to the parking lot, load it up and go back into the kitchen. Well this kitchen cart had stacks of plastic trays hanging from the cart. I figured I could use them like shelves.

I had made a trip or two already and was loading up bags and boxes. I had a lovely glass salad bowl which I sat on a tray and then I promptly loaded another tray, slid it in, and you guessed it, knocked the glass bowl off the tray out the other end smashing it down onto the pavement.

That's when you just kind of take a moment, stand there and realize what had just happened and that it totally could have been prevented. And how much I was going to miss that glass salad bowl. Not just for the reception but for my holiday meals at home. Luckily it wasn't an expensive glass bowl, but it just should never have happened.

Then I had to go inside the church, find the maintenance closet, take a broom, dust pan and small garbage can outside and clean up my mess. Luckily it was in the back parking lot and it was all cleaned up before anyone else arrived. Not the most pleasant way to start an afternoon of making petite sandwiches and fruit platters.

I'm fine now. I've moved on. I haven't replaced the glass salad bowl yet and every time I drink soda pop from a glass bottle, I'll remember that June day in the grocery store parking lot.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Remembering Dad


Today would have been my Father's 94th Birthday. I woke up this morning thinking about him. He was born in 1914 and passed away 10 years ago, right before Father's Day, and two months before his 84th birthday.

Dad was 43 years old when I was born and I was only 40 years old when he passed away. Just think, he had lived half his life before I was even born.

He had 20 wonderful years of retirement with Mom. They traveled in their motor home, served two church missions, and enjoyed many summers at the cabin where they welcomed grandkids, friends and even a few strangers.

Dad loved to sing with the Barbershop Chorus, cooked great sourdough bread and of course loved cooking in his dutch ovens. He was a constant inventor. Always figuring out how to make some clever thing.

He taught me that I could do anything. Just two months before he died I was able to tell him I was going back to college to finish my degree and he was delighted.

Growing up in Boise Dad used to invite me to the auction with him on Saturdays. Of course he had gone down much earlier in the morning to see what he wanted to buy and estimated what time the bidding would be in that area. Then I would go back with him and get to watch the bidding. I'm not sure he needed all that stuff but he had a great time.

Dad was the oldest in his family and in retirement enjoyed many visits and trips with his brothers and sisters and their spouses. He loved being around people.

He was an example to me of how a life should be led. I'm proud to be his daughter. Happy Birthday Dad, I love you!

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