Val's Birthday Weekend

Thursday, November 13th

I can't believe I am 42. So much has happened this year and if you asked me a few years ago what I would be doing, I wouldn't have guessed any of this. I was so ready for stuff to slow down a bit, but it probably won't for a while. Between work and home stuff, life has been going by way too fast. I decided to go into work on my birthday this year because it was just the three of us and I felt bad for missing a Thursday since it is citation day.

I got up early and went to work, wore my socks I got from Kathy, got there around 6:50, set up my desk, got out my breakfast, put lunch in the fridge and start in on my work. Liz arrived around 9:30ish. I finished up the checks. She taught me how to process some of the different emails from collections that involve adjusting money and closing out the complaints. That took up some of the morning because two of the four had some issues we would have to deal with next week.

We went to lunch with Jamie; I brought crock pot chicken taco bowl with chipotle lime sauce. Everyone thought it was pretty good. They wanted to take me out for my birthday over the weekend and asked me where I would like to go. We decided on The Hub in Centralia at 1. I was looking forward to it.

We went back to our desks and continued on with our stuff. I got the emails done and some of the pending thing in the inbox. Liz left around 2 for her shot and to finish up work at home. I got as much stuff done as possible and took a short break. I crossed paths with Kyla and chatted with her for a few minutes. She asked if I was interested in being on an interview panel. I told her I would have to ask if it was okay first. Apparently now, we have to take a class to be on an interview panel.

I logged off a smidgen early and went downstairs to chat with Jamie. I headed home around 4:30.

On the way home, Ben and I usually talk about how our day went, and we got to talking about cake. He told me he was at the store (didn't tell me which store he was at) and I decided since we mentioned cake, that a maple bar from Safeway sounded good. I made a quick stop at Safeway. I picked an aisle and found a parking spot. I put the Escape into park, shut it off and I noticed the car in front of me looked familiar. Hahaha, Ben was at Safeway! Probably getting me a maple bar.

I went inside and didn't see him. I went over to the bakery and decided to call him. He answered, I tell him the short story and he was like, "You ruined my surprise!" I replied, "How would I know where you were and what you were doing?" I just thought a maple bar sounded good. I didn't grab a maple bar but grabbed a couple things for breakfast the next day. I got in line and paid.

I went back out to the Escape and Ben was waiting in the parking lot with a birthday bag. I told him that I would open it at home. We went home and he presented me with a bag, a card, a maple bar and a Milky Way. Two perfect desserts...not together though, lol.

We made one of our favorite Hello Fresh meals and watched Thursday Night Football. The Patriots beat the Jets 27-14.

The rest of the night we chilled since it was my long day. I got a lot of messages, phone calls and posts wishing me a happy birthday. To this day, I still miss my happy birthday song from Grammie. I still hear her voice in my head singing it to me.

My only gripe of the day was how horrible the weather was. 

Friday, November 14th

I took the day off from work, got up around 10, went for a walk, talked to Trish, ate a quick breakfast, gathered up the recycle, went into Rainier to meet up with Dad at Grammie and Grandpa's house to go through books.  I found a few things to take home and helped him sort about 10 boxes of books into categories. I went home around 3, had a quick snack, took a shower and made some banana bread. Washed a load of laundry.

Ben got home and we got ready to meet up with friends at Buffalo Wild Wings. Our food was paid for with a gift card Ben got from work for some sort of worker appreciation a few months ago.

Lindsay texted me that she, Justin and the kids were going to come and preordered their food because their kids were going to come with them. I told her that was fine. Megan arrived early and snagged us a table to sit at in the dining area. Ben and I arrived just before 6. Once Celeste was done with work, her and Isaac arrived just before 6:30, followed by Nicole and Del, who get off work later in the day. They got there around 6:45. 

I got my sister a chubby stuffed unicorn for her birthday years ago and at one point his name was Sausage but was changed to Sparkles. Sparkles made his way to our last D&D session and Erika accidentally left him at Nicole and Del's house and he had quite the week over at their house. Del brought him to dinner so I could get him back to Erika.

We ordered food and drinks, told stories, visited and enjoyed the evening hanging out. It was a nice, chill birthday party with friends. I thanked them for coming out to celebrate.

Afterwards, Megan, Ben and I walked over to Trader Joe's with Sparkles to pick up some gluten free snacks. I'm sure people looked at us weird, but we didn't care, we were having fun. We told Megan to text us when she got home and we headed home ourselves. We finished laundry and did a couple other chores that needed to get done. 

We stayed up late. I worked on my blog, watched shows and Ben played his video games with Josh.

Saturday, November 15th

Got up around 9:30, went for a walk, talked to Rhonda for a bit, she gave me a Cougar yard sign, she got from Pullman in September. Talked to Mom while I walked the loop around the park. 

I got home, changed clothes and got ready to go to Centralia to meet up with Liz and Jaime at the Hub. I had a hard time finding a parking spot, walked to the Hub. I found an empty table with room, Liz and Jamie met up a few min later. They sat down, we looked at menus, all decided we wanted breakfast, we visited, they got me a card. I was surprised they got me a card. It was very thoughtful of them.

Our waitress came by and we ordered food and drinks - they paid for my food, which was very kind of them to do for my birthday. We continued with our conversations, they paid, loitered for a little bit and then decided to walk around Centralia for about an hour. 

We went into a few bookstores and a toy store. I did purchase a book from one of the bookstores, and I was lucky I had cash on me since it was a cash only store. Liz offered to drive me to my car since I had to park so far away. I thanked her for everything. I am not sure how she received it, but I meant it and wanted her to know. I gave Liz some banana bread to take home and share with her kids.

I got on I-5 and headed north. I needed to pee really bad, so I stopped at the Scatter Creek Rest Area. I was sad there were no new caches to grab. I figured since I was out and about, to take care of the grocery shopping. I went to Costco first, then Walmart and finally Winco. I headed home and asked Ben to help me bring everything in and put it away.

I spent some time chatting with people on the phone. Ben and I made baked potatoes for dinner while we watched the Cougars beat Louisiana State. I paid bills and then watched a couple shows while I worked on my blog that I was severely behind on. We went to bed late once again.

Sunday, November 16th

We got up earlier than we usually do on a Sunday and headed into Rainier to work on a couple projects. We worked on the laundry room and finished putting the carpet squares in the laundry room and unfortunately, we ran out of carpet tape. I had to make a trip into Yelm to grab some more. I also grabbed a better box cutter to make cutting the carpet squares easier. We listened to the football games on my phone through the Bose speaker Ben won at work.

We moved into the computer room and started putting carpet squares down in there but ran out. Dad had to go to Grammie and Grandpa's house to pick up some more. Once Dad came back, we helped him bring in the carpet squares and do a few things around the house. Then it started getting dark, as it does this time of the year. So, we put everything away and made a list of stuff we wanted to take care of the following weekend - we were hoping to get the rest of the ceiling done, the new fan in the bathroom installed and some of the half-finished projects in the kitchen done. 

We drove back home, got cleaned up, made dinner and watched the Eagles defeat the Lions in a very sad low scoring game. I was not ready to go back to work the next day after my long birthday weekend. I just wanted the rental to get done but there were still a ton of things left to do. I was hoping it wouldn't go through the summer, and we would be done and moved in by June. I guess we will see.

Next Adventure: A Long Thanksgiving Weekend

Seattle Seahawks vs. Arizona Cardinals

A few month prior, Ben asked me which game I would like to go to this year. I told him I would have to look at my list of teams I've seen in the past and get back to him. I told him I had never seen the Cardinals play and he was like, that was the game I was looking at on Svend's list. Svend was given his parent's season tickets and can't go to all the games because he has little kids, he sells most of them to people he knows. 

Luckily, the Cardinal game was still available on Svend's list. Ben messaged him and made sure we got that game secured. We were now going to the Cardinal game. I sure hoped that it was better than the Buccaneer game I went to weeks prior with Mom. We should have won that game. I hate leaving the stadium angry. I wasn't sure what the weather was going to be like since it was November. It is pretty much a crapshoot at this point in the year. 

We got up around 8:30, ate a quick breakfast, made chicken Caesar wraps because going to football games aren't really that gluten free friendly to take with us and put it in the cooler. We made sure we had everything including warm clothes just in case it got cold or rained, our phone charger, hats, scarves, gloves and other things we thought of at the last minute and tucked those into our clear bag.

We jumped into Ben's Edge and left around 10:20 and got onto I-5. The traffic wasn't too terrible. We decided to call Trish and bother her while we were driving through Fife. We talked about our weekends thus far and then about how we thought the game was going to go. I was still on the fence on how our season was going so far. I thought we were pretty average overall and if I were to single out a few players, we had a couple who made big plays. I was just hoping to get to the playoffs this year after a couple of rough years behind our belts. In no way did I ever think we were a Super Bowl contender after getting a new coach recently and obtaining Darnold as our starting quarterback. I knew we would probably beat the Cardinals because they have constantly been terrible season after season.

Svend's tickets also came with a parking pass, as they did last year and yes, Ben didn't check to see if he accepted them, like he did last year when we were near the T-Mobile Park parking garage. We had to take a quick detour while he called Svend and downloaded them onto his phone. We got back in line for the garage, found a place and parked. We decided to eat our chicken Caesar wraps and some chips before going into the field house.

We walked the block and half to the field house, went through security and scanned our tickets. We were given some player posters. We ended up getting like five or six of them. We wandered around for a little bit and then saw that the Lombardi Trophy was out for display. We jumped in a very short line and got our picture with it. It was so cool to see it in person. 

We made our way to the stadium and found our seats. Svend and his family have a great view and comfortable chairs to sit in. Plus, we don't have people in front of us or behind us. Lots of room! We got situated and watched some of the pregame. The Star-Spangled Banner was performed and a celebrity rose the 12th Man flag.

I expected a big win from the Seahawks that afternoon. Let's gooooooo!

We started out with the ball in the first quarter and on our first drive of the game we managed to make it down the field, and it ended with a Darnold throw to Jaxon Smith-Njigba for six. Our kicker, Jason Meyers made the point after. We led the Cardinals early, 7-0. 

The Cardinals took their turn and their quarterback Jcoby Brissett got walloped by our defense and the closest player to it, scooped it up and ran it in for another 6. That followed by a Meyers extra point. We lead 14-0. On Arizona's next turn, they ran out of downs and had to punt the ball back to us. We finished off the quarter by a 9-yard rushing touchdown by George Holani and a point after touchdown by Meyers. We extended our lead 21-0.

Ben got up to grab a snack and some seltzers. I hung out in our seats surrounded by gameday ambiance. When he returned, he had a tub of popcorn, two seltzers and a Coke Zero.

The second quarter was just as one-sided as the previous quarter. The Cardinals quarterback had the ball punched out of his hands by our defense; it was caught in stride as it bounced off of the turf and ran in for another defensive touchdown. Meyers made his extra point. We had a commanding lead 28-0. The crowd was lit!

On the Cardinal's second possession of the second quarter, they once again, ran out of downs and had to punt the ball back to us. We chipped away at their defense and made our way down the field to set up a 6-yard rush touchdown by Zach Carbonnet. Meyers tacked on another made point after. We continued adding to our lead on Arizona 35-0. 

Arizona turn the ball over on downs and we get the ball back with not-so-great field position. Darnold makes a bad decision and fumbles the ball. The Cardinals recover it and score on a short field. We still lead, 35-7, but now, it isn't a shutout. We possess the ball one more time before half, but we were not able to get a touchdown. We make the field goal just as time ran out for the first half. We lead 38-7.

After halftime, the Cardinals received the ball to start the third quarter but quickly turn it over on downs. On our possession, Darnold threw an interception and Arizona gets great field position for a 15-yard pass to Trey McBride in the end zone. They elect to go for 2 instead of a field goal. Brissett finds Marvin Harrison Jr. open and converts. The score was now 38-15.

The Seahawks get the ball back but fumbles. Luckily, Arizona turns it over on downs with the help from our defense. The third quarter ends 38-15.

The fourth quarter opened with a field goal from Meyers, adding three more to our lead. The Cardinals get a much-needed touchdown from a 9-yard pass from Brissett to Harrison Jr. and a made point after touchdown by their kicker, Chad Ryland. It wouldn't be enough. With 5:31 left in the 4th, Meyers scores our last set of points on a field goal. The Cardinals have a short-lived possession and then punt. We run out the clock. Lights out. Seahawks stomp the Cardinals 44-22.

The crowd roared, hive fives were given and everyone grabbed their stuff and started funneling out of the stadium. It took a while for Ben and I to get out to the street to make our way back to the Edge, over by the baseball stadium. We had to wade through a lot of people. We left the parking garage around 5 and got onto I-5 south. 

We rolled into our driveway around 6ish. We grabbed a snack, got cleaned up, ran a load of laundry and got ready for the upcoming work week. That was a fun game!

Game notes: 

We had 372 to their 335 yards of total offense

JSN tops 1K yards through nine games, becoming the first NFL receiver to eclipse 1K this season. He also became the 8th player in franchise history to record back-to-back 1K seasons.

This was Rasheed Shaheed's debut as a Seahawk. He was traded by New Orleans earlier in the week.

68,723 in attendance

We possessed the ball 7 minutes longer than the Cardinals; they had 21 and we had 22 first downs and they had more penalty yards than we did.

Next Adventure: Val's Birthday Weekend

Halloween Party with Friends

We always try to get a head start on figuring out costumes for Halloween and each year we lose track of time and end up scrambling to get a costume lined up. This year was busy and we lost track of time...again. However, we had part of a costume we were going to do for our 90's themed party we had a few years ago. All we had to do was finish it.

I looked at the pieces we did have and what all we needed to finish them. We had the T-shirts with the logos on them and had some of the knee and elbow pads as well as the khaki shorts. We had to find another set and was going to check the Goodwill. I had the helmets and all they needed was spray painted gold, so I had Ben purchase some gold paint. I checked several Goodwill's in the area for knee and elbow pads and came up bit for relatively cheap. The only other thing we needed was to make pendants of life, which was pretty easy to do with a printer, some scissors and some sort of a string to drape them over our necks like we were wearing them. I also made us some name tags. We had to look official.

By the description of what I was describing, all you Millennials and GenX'ers might have guessed we were contestants on the game show, Legends of the Hidden Temple. Anyone younger than that might not know what that show was.

It took a couple days for me to assemble both costumes. Most of it was spray painting the helmets gold.

My friends and I decided to have our Halloween party the day after Halloween mostly because Celeste works on Saturdays and she and Isaac host Halloween at their house. It worked best for them to do it on Saturday night. She told us to come over around 6 with costumes, food and games. The food never disappoints nor do the games we play. It's always a good time.

Ben and I assembled the food we were supposed to bring, an extra table and the folding chairs. We headed into Tumwater and backed into the driveway so the boys can unload the table and folding chairs. They made quick work of it.

We went inside and helped finish up the dining room with Celeste. I went into the small bathroom and changed into my costume. Luckily, this one was easy to get into and didn't have a ton of parts.

We took group photos and individual/couple's pictures before we ate and played games. Ben and I went as contestants on Legends of the Hidden Temple, Megan was a llama, Nicole was a K-Pop character, Del was a space guy, Celeste was a witch, Isaac went as Jason, Lindsay was a Harry Potter character and Justin wore a cloak - I wasn't actually sure what he was. The only good spot in the house was the staircase, and it was a place we could all fit. We took several pictures and picked out the good ones.

We all grabbed some plates of food and made ourselves comfortable around the table. We played various games including our favorite one - Telestrations. That one seems to get out of hand when we all get together. We have some memorable drawings over the years that we still talk about. That night was no exception. We had some funny ones that made you almost pee your pants.

We always stay way too late when we have a game night. We helped Celeste and Isaac move the furniture back into its place, put away food and took the extra chairs and tables out to the Escape. I asked Megan to make sure she lets us know when she gets home since she is the only one who lives out in Rainier still...which is a longer drive than we all had currently.

We thanked Celeste and Isaac for hosting Halloween, and we looked forward to next year, which will be on actual Halloween! That meant, I have to start thinking about a costume here pretty soon since we always run out of time. Time flies.

Next Adventure: Seattle Seahawks vs. Arizona Cardinals