Thanksgiving Weekend

Thursday, November 26

I was so glad we had a four day weekend.  I was so excited to sleep in.  Unfortunately, Ben's Grandma Bonnie lost the fight and passed away yesterday.  At least she wasn't in the terrible nursing home or in a hospital.  She was comfortably surrounded by her daughter inside a warm home with people who care about her.  Ben was upset that he wasn't able to see her one more time before yesterday and soon became depressed about it.  I didn't blame him.  He had just lost his last grandparent.

We were going to go over to Shelly's for Thanksgiving and have my family over on Friday but with the sudden change of plans, Trish ended up deciding to have a small Thanksgiving gathering at her house with Amy and Ed.  So that's where we were going to go.

We got up, had to clean up poop in the cat room because Oliver was having a hard time adjusting to a cat box after living on a farm.  I've had a lot of cats in the course of my lifetime and have never had one struggle to use a cat box.  We ate cereal (I had one bowl because I knew we'd be eating a lot of food later on), cleaned the kitchen, microwave and the oven because it desperately needed to get done.

The Texans and Lions game started at noon and we listened to that as we cleaned up the house before we went.  The game was very one sided, the Texans really made the Lions look bad.  Then we turned on the other game, Washington and Dallas which started at 1:30, for a bit and then decided that we should start getting ready.  Washington was making Dallas look bad.  With the loss of Dak for the season, the Cowboys weren't going to amount to much.  The third game of the day was postponed due to Covid.

I had a shower the night before so Ben took some time to get cleaned up.  We put something other than sweatpants on and got ready to go.  We packed up food, water and the cat box to take with us since we didn't want to leave the kitties behind since they've only been with us for a few day.  We put Oliver in the cat carrier and I held Wade in a blanket since he was cold.

We left later than we wanted but didn't hit any holiday traffic which was good.  We did get there past when the food got done but they waited for us and kept the food warm.  We pulled in, unloaded the cats and their things and got ready to eat food.  Trish had made a turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots and Worcestershire sauce, rolls and some pie for dessert.  Of course, we ate too much.

We watched the rest of the Washington and Dallas game while we ate.  Washington crushed Dallas and in the other game the Texans destroyed the Lions.  We helped Trish clean up the dining table and put stuff away.  I got too comfortable with Wade and ended up falling asleep for about an hour or so.  That darn tryptophan! 

Ben and I brought our marble board, dice and marbles so we can play a different game for once.  We play the crap out of the games at his mom's house.  We played a few rounds and even Wade and Oliver participated in some of the dice rolls. It was a good time.  

We decided it was probably time to head on home.  Trish, Ed and Amy all had to work the next day but Ben and I didn't have to.  We packed up the cat's stuff, thanked Trish for having us over for Thanksgiving, she sent us home with her Jell-O dessert since she was undecided about tomorrow and we left towards home.  We stopped at Safeway to get gas and had no traffic keeping us from getting home.  It was nice.  We got home at a decent time, got some of the food ready for tomorrow's Thanksgiving with my family, Ben played his game, I worked on my blog for a while as I watched some of my crime documentaries.  It was a chill evening. 

Friday, November 27

The next morning I got up around 9:30 and took care of the cats.  Wade was so ready to come out of the bathroom and start his day.  Oliver was ready to be let out of the cat room as well.  I made French toast sticks and sausage for breakfast and had to make Ben get out of bed to eat it before it got cold.  We watched some college football as we ate.  College football wasn't as exciting this year.  So many good games were canceled or delayed because of Covid.  Black Friday was also canceled because of Covid too.  I am so sick of Covid.

After breakfast, we spent our late morning moving and setting tables up, chairs, vaccuming, cleaning the bathroom and making sure I had everything for the dinner.  I worked on my blog for a while and sat with our kitties.  Around 1:30ish I got the turkey and stuffing ready to go and put it in the cooker.  We had gotten this free from Josh and Heather a few weeks ago.  Heather works at Costco and one of the perks is free meat during the holidays.  They decided on having prime rib for their dinner this year instead of turkey.

Tracy had called me to let me know she wasn't coming for Thanksgiving this year.  It was a combination of several different things keeping her from coming.  Kevin and Karla emailed me back a few weeks ago telling me they probably wouldn't be coming to anything family related until Covid is gone or there is a safe vaccination.  Trish also called us to let us know they weren't coming either.  She was letting Covid dictate her decisions for some reason.  Ben was disappointed.

Ben went into town to visit with Josh and to see if he could get a holder for my birthday gift that came in the mail a few days ago.  He couldn't find what he was looking for so he decided against it.  It actually didn't need one because it came with a cover.  He stopped by Safeway to get some beer before he came home.  It was getting almost time for the potatoes and green beans to cook as I kept an eye on the turkey.

I got all the plates, silverware and decorations ready and decorated the table while I was waiting for everything to get done.

As it approached 6, most of my food was done so I set it on the table and put plates and tin foil over the food to keep it warm.  Erika and Zach arrived first with the salad I asked them to bring.  Erika got that all mixed up and put on the table.  Mom and Grandma arrived.  Mom brought her cookies, fudge and some Costco pies that she got from work.  Grandma brought some rolls and I immediately got the oven going so we could get them warm.  Dad came and got settled in and then Doug and Jenn came a little while later after we started eating with the sweet potatoes and green bean casserole.  Jenn got stuff cooking later than anticipated.  

We ate, chatted about funny things, Dad updated us on Grandpa's status at the rehab place since we couldn't go visit home because of Covid, he seems to be doing pretty well, we watched the Civil War and the Beavers beat the Ducks just before the end of the game.  There was no Apple Cup this year due to Covid.  This was the first time a game wasn't held since 1944.  The Pac-12 this year was a disaster anyway so it was just as well.

Everyone stayed for a bit, ate some dessert, and then everyone decided they wanted to go home and relax.  Everyone took home some leftovers.  Ben and I cleaned up and put everything away, watched the Masked Singer and the Mandalorian and then went to bed shortly after.  I was tired.

Saturday, November 28

It was nice to sleep in a little bit.  Ben slept in longer so I had a Poptart and milk while I watched some of the college football games while I ate.  I got some laundry going, Ben and I did a little bit of house cleaning, wiped the kitchen down and started gathering up the recycle and the garbage, which takes me some time because I want to make sure I get all of it.

I piled the recycle into the back of the Escape and headed on into Rainier.  I dropped off the recycle first and then proceeded to Mom and Dad's house for the truck.  He decided he wanted to go with me so we stopped at Grandma's house for some cans, then Grandpa's house for cans and then drove into Rainier to load up my three cans.  I would rather have a load of six cans so paying the $18 is well worth it.  We got to the dump and didn't have to wait too long to get rid of it.

We drove back to my house to drop off the cans and then headed back into Rainier.  There was an accident on Rainier Road just before Military Road, a motorcycle drove off the road and into the trees.  Luckily, we didn't have to stop and wait a long time...plus I don't think it was a fatality so they didn't have to close the road.  

We dropped off Grandpa's cans and then dropped off Grandma's cans.  Dad took me back to their house so I could pick up my Escape.  I thanked Dad for the dump run and then went to the store in Hawks Prairie to pick up a few things and to get a cat bed for Oliver.

I got home, snuggled with the kitties for a while, watched Mike Tyson box on TV, then crime shows, Ben started playing his Mario 64 game that he plays between Thanksgiving and Christmas...a tradition he and his dad used to do and just relaxed because we could.  

He eventually got ready for his 24-hour shift the next day.  That meant he had to shave, shower and get some food all packed up to go.  I stayed up a little bit longer working on my blog and watching random shows on our streaming sites.

Sunday, November 29

Ben got up, got ready and fed the cats.  I could hear him thumping around the room as he got ready.  Now that I was awake I got up and peed and then went back to bed.  He took the stuff out of the room and got his car started.  He came back in, said goodbye with kisses and he headed out.  The cats ran around for a while and then settled down again and laid with me until I got up, a few hours later.  I didn't have to get up for anything.

I managed to finally get up around 10.  I ate some cereal and called Mom to see what they were doing today.  She said that she bought some new Christmas lights for the house and wanted help putting them up.  I said I'd be there in a while.  I wanted to get some of my clothes washed and a couple things put away.  So I spent a few hours doing that.  

We didn't quite trust the cats to be out in the living room quite yet so I grabbed some of their toys, made sure they had food and water and their cat box was good and put them into the cat room for a few hours. I would rather minimize the destruction of the house than come home to see what all they got into.  At this point they haven't been here quite a week yet.  We were all still feeling each other out.

I drove out to Rainier and asked mom how she wanted to put the lights on the house and if she had enough to make it around.  She said she should have plenty of them.  I went and got the ladder and set it up on the back porch and had Dad hold it because the back porch has seen better days over the past few years.  I didn't want it to slip and I fall and get hurt really bad.  I brought the box of roof/gutter clips with me.  We took the old lights off...many of them were already falling off the roof anyways so it didn't take very long to get them all down.  Mom opened all the boxes and stretched them out and started handing them to me.  We started with the south side of the roof and worked our way to the north side.  The plug in are at the middle of the roof and on the north side of the house.  We were going to have to be creative when we plug them in so the roof ones and the ones she wrapped around the porch all worked.

It was a slow process but we made some strides once we got going.  I was glad the roof was dry or I would be soaked.  I did have a towel underneath me just so I wasn't rubbing against the singles with my pants. 

It took about an hour and a half to get them all up and we were glad they all worked when we did plug them in.  We did plug them in before we put them up to see if they worked before putting them up because you just never know.  She wanted the two stars, one on the porch and the other on the garage to work but we didn't have the connecters to do so.  That would have to wait for another day.  Apparently, the extension cords have two different size prongs now days which makes it hard to plug stuff into itself.  That was one of our issues.

Because it was winter and the days were short, it was starting to get dark and I was getting cold after being on the roof for a couple hours.  Plus, I needed to get home to let the cats out of their room and get some stuff done at my house like finish the laundry and start getting my elf on the shelf stuff ready for December.  

Mom and Dad thanked me for helping them put lights on the house and I headed home.  I made myself some leftovers and watched some shows.  I got cleaned up and then started wrapping presents that I had sitting in the extra room.  I thought, why not...I have some time to get this done before we get our tree.  

I got the elf on the shelf bins out and started going through them for the ideas I've been collecting since last year.  I got some of them set aside for the first week of December,  I only had to have four display ideas for that week.

I talked to Ben for a bit before it was time for bed.  I hate that these long weekend seem to go by so fast.  This year's Thanksgiving was very unorthodox.  I really missed everyone getting together like we did many years ago as a family.  It's just not the same.  Why does time go by so fast and take people away from you?  I never understood why so many people hated the holidays but as of 2018 I now understand.  Holidays to me were very important growing up because it was about family.  My family is disappearing and it hurts.  Covid just makes it worse.  Please go away!

Next Adventure:  Christmas Tree Adventures

Welcome Home Wade and Oliver!

August was a terrible month for me.  August two years ago was the worst.  Why has the month of August been so horrible to me?  I was so devastated when I had to make one of the worse decisions by putting my cat, Calvin, to sleep.  I hated that I had to make such a choice.  I will never forget the way I felt when I left the clinic.  It felt like I had betrayed him when he was counting on me to make him better and take him home.  I wasn't going to be able to make him better because he was an older cat and it's hard to overcome cancer as an older cat.  The worst part was feeling him die in my arms and the realization that he was gone.  He wasn't coming back.  I cried for days.

I wasn't sure when I would be ready to have another cat because losing Calvin made me so sad.  This was my first pet as an adult that wasn't a family pet.  We had a lot of good times and I am glad he was around during the roughest parts of my life.  He will always hold a special place in my heart.

A few weeks later, one of Mom's bosses at the office, suggested this place called Siamese Sensations on Facebook, who are located in the Spanaway area.  Mom had told some people at work about the loss of my cat and I guess Dr. Woods loves cats and thought I would appreciate the connection. 

I finally got the nerve to contact them on August 16th to ask about their services and to see if it would be possible to get a kitty.  I knew adoption places made it tough for people to get pets because of the rules, prices and such.  I get it because they don't want their pets to go to people who can't take care of them or will abuse them.  I was contacted back and she said it was possible but I would have to be put on a list because it is a first come first served basis.  I proceeded to tell her my story and she felt for me.  She had lost cats in the past and knows how painful it is to lose a buddy.

I told her my preferences and she said that she might have a litter coming up that might yield a male blue point but she said no guarantees and I understood that.  She said the litter would be born sometime in mid to late September and that she could put me on a list.  I downloaded PayPal, resurrected my account and sent her $50 plus tax to her account so I could be on a list.  She said she would contact me when she had more information and as it got closer to when the kittens were born.  She added, that she typically keeps them with their mothers until about 8 weeks old so she knows that they can used the litter box, clean themselves and eat before adopting them out.  I told her thank you for the information and that I was excited to be a part of the process.

The house was sure lonely without a pet in it.  At this point, I've been working from home for about 5-6 months because of Covid and the house was so quiet without Calvin.  I missed him so much.

My litter was born on September 23, 2020.  He was born into a litter with four other males, the mother, Maleficent (the owner loves Disney and her pets often get Disney names) is a blue point Siamese and this was her last litter.  She messaged me to let me know that the litter was born and will have more information for me once the kittens got bigger.

Once their eyes opened and started moving around more she sent me pictures of him playing and being a kitten.  She told me that she calls him the old man because he has a grumpy old man face.  

As it got closer to the 8 weeks, she messaged me just before Thanksgiving to let me know that my kitten was ready to come pick up.  I asked if it was okay for me to come get him on Tuesday after work and she said that was fine.  I said I lived in Lacey and it would take some time to get out to where she was.  I told her I would text her when I got into Spanaway.  She said that all works for her and said she would see me on Tuesday.

Ben also wanted a kitty.  He hasn't had his own pet since Sebastian, an orange kitty he had picked out of a shelter when he was about 5 or 6 years old.  He had him until he was about 17.  We started looking up free kittens around the area.  Most if not all wanted some sort of an adoption fee, which I totally get because they want the animals to go to places that will take care of them.  Ben finally got a hold of someone who had three kittens on a farm in Oakville.  They were asking for a $50 adoption fee so they could save the money and fix their barn cat.  The family had two orange cats and a black and white cat.  They were older kittens, roughly 4-5 months old.  Mom overheard us talking about it and she wanted the other orange cat.  I asked her if she was sure because we can't take him back.  She said she was sure.  

That day, I let Ben take our cat carrier to pick up the two orange cats after he got off work and when I got off work that day I stopped by Mom and Dad's house to pick up the other cat carrier to pick up my cat.  I told Dad, since he was home at the time, that I would bring my cat by on my way home so he and Mom could meet him.  I went the back way around Yelm into McKenna and then through Roy and then into Spanaway.  I let her know I was in Spanaway and she said see you in a bit.  I turned left onto Hwy 7 and followed her directions to her house.  I was so glad I went and got money from the ATM during lunch earlier that day because I wouldn't have had time to do it after work.

I pulled up to her house, parked, grabbed the cat carrier, my money and my mask and rang the door bell.  She let me in and welcomed me.  I told her I wasn't sure on her mask policy so I just wore mine the entire time.  She showed me where my little guy was and let me hold him while we visited a little bit.  He was so tiny!  She gave me a bag of starter kitten food and a blanket to take with me.  I gave her the money and thanked her for everything.  She thanked me for working with her and being patient.  I went back to the Escape and headed back to Hwy 7.  He was quiet the entire way back to Mom and Dad's house.  Once I got there, I grabbed the cat carrier and took him into the house.  I took him out and let Mom and Dad hold him.  Chloe wasn't a fan of him.  I told her that he wasn't staying and that she could chill out.  I stayed for about a half hour and decided it was time to head home.  It's been a long day.  

I had already picked out a name for him.  His name is Wade.  I picked Wade because Ben and I love the Deadpool movies and I've never heard of a pet named Wade before.

I got home a little bit before Ben arrived with the orange cats.  We took them all out of the cat carriers and let them explore the house.  The two orange cats were very friendly even though they were barn cats.  Mom said she would pick up her cat the next day after she got home from work.  So I had to keep all of them company while I worked tomorrow.

We needed some kitten food so Ben and I ran to the store quickly and bought some kitten food.  We already had litter so we got the litter box ready and made a smaller one for Wade because he was going to spend the night in the guest bathroom while the two orange cats slept in the cat room.  Everyone got food and water in their rooms as well.

They were very busy and even did some wrestling before it was time for bed.  I set up the guest bathroom for Wade while Ben got the cat room ready for the orange cats.  We had to keep the heat on so they didn't get cold since it was late fall/early winter.  The first night was pretty good.  Wade did mew for a while but he eventually gave up and went to sleep.

**A few days later Ben named his cat Oliver and about two weeks later Mom and Dad named their orange cat Kirby.**

Next Adventure:  Thanksgiving Weekend

Trish's Birthday Weekend in Bonney Lake

Friday, November 20

Over the past few weeks we've been talking to Trish about what she wanted to do for her birthday and she said that she wanted to stay home, eat good food and play games.  I told her we could absolutely do that.  I asked her what kind of food she wanted, so we broke down the weekend and planned out our meals.  I told her we also would bring some games with us since we were tired of playing the same games over and over again.  She said that would be fine too.

We got most of our stuff ready the night before and packed up for the most part.  While I was working, I did a few loads of laundry and when I was done with work, I did my workout and then got cleaned up.  I cleaned the shower, the shower curtain and the bathroom rugs.

I packed up our drinks, frozen potatoes, sausage and cheese in the cooler and put ice packs on them.  Ben worked late and didn't come home until after 6...apparently, they had to take care of something at the last minute.  He got home, changed and he helped me load everything into the Edge.  We made sure everything was good inside the house, the doors were locked and off we went to Bonney Lake.

There was hardly any traffic (which was nice for a Friday night) and we stopped at the Safeway in town to pick up some garlic bread, drinks and bacon.  We got to the house, unloaded our stuff and got settled in.  We opened birthday presents while we waited for dinner to finish cooking.  She wanted pillows for her couch so we got those for her and she got me a Meme card game for my birthday.  I told her we will probably going to play this over the weekend.  She said that she had planned on it.

The other day when we spoke, I suggested that Amy make us all dinner on Friday night.  It would be good character building for her.  Of course Amy didn't want to do it because it involved work but Trish made her and supervised the entire process.  When it was done, we all dished up and ate at the table.

Amy did a good job so we complimented her.  I even suggested that she make more meals in the future!  She frowned on that idea but we're going to work on her.

We helped clean up and then we played rummy for a few hours.  Ben came from behind to win, Trish and I tied and Amy lost. 

We all were tired from our long work days so we got ready for bed and eventually passed out after midnight.

Saturday, November 21

We got up around 9:45-10:00.  I probably would have slept a little bit longer because I didn't sleep too well the night before.  I needed another blanket because I got cold.  The bed was actually somewhat comfortable but that's because Trish changed out the mattresses over the past few months.  I cleaned myself up a bit and then headed upstairs.

Since it was Trish's birthday she was not allowed to wait on us, no making us meals, no cleaning up after us...none of it.  I got out what I needed and starting making the potato, egg and sausage scramble because it fed a lot of people and it was good.  Ben surfaced upstairs so I put him to work toasting the English muffins.  Around 11ish, everyone eventually got out of bed.  Ed came over around 11:30 to eat breakfast and to spend the day with us.

After breakfast, Amy did the dishes while Trish awaited her phone call.  She was finally getting out of her timeshare which is literally sucking money out of her.  She's been meaning to do it for years but didn't.  Once, that phone call was over we asked her what she would like us to do downstairs.  She had also been putting off cleaning out the room downstairs, you know...the catch-all room.  She set aside stuff to go to the dump and stuff to take to the Goodwill.

We also went through the boxes in the garage.  She was finally done storing them and just wanted them gone, so we crammed them into the back of the truck on top of the very old mattress that needed to go.  Trish and I drove to the recycle and the dump while Ben and Ed fixed the sink and the light fixtures in the upstairs bathroom.  First, we had to stop and get money from the ATM machine because the payment options weren't clear on the Pierce County waste website.  We wanted to be safe than sorry when we got there.

We did the recycle first but had to break them down and take the Styrofoam out of them.  That took us a little while because she had a lot of boxes to get rid of.  

We then, got into the large line to get rid of the mattress and the containers of cat litter.  This dump isn't as organized as the ones in Thurston County.  We HAD to wear a mask here.

We finally go to our stall and tossed everything inside.  I'm sure Trish thought I was a weirdo while we were here.  You have to enjoy and embrace the dump.  Then I told her stories about going with our Dad throughout the years.  It was basically bonding time with Dad.  She laughed.

We drove home and started in on the next project she wanted to get done, cleaning the downstairs where the pool table was.  She said for years they just stored stuff down there and she was determined to go through it and take it to the Goodwill.  She was tired of it sitting there and taking up room.  Several boxes of stuff was taken and put in the back of the truck.  As that was going on, I decided to vacuum since that room probably hasn't been in a while because of all the stuff sitting around.  After we were done taking boxes out and vacuuming the room looked pretty good.  Trish and I drove to the Goodwill and had to wait in line for a bit.  They took everything except three things because they were deemed furniture, which they didn't take anymore at that specific location.

We came back to the house and then decided we were hungry.  Mazatlán was one of the dinners Trish wanted this weekend and I made sure to bring cash for my dinner. We got everyone's order all situated and called it in since we couldn't go into restaurants at this point in time.  Trish and Ben went to go pick it up while I worked on my blog.  They came back with bags of food and we figured out which food went to whom.  I got the chicken chimichanga, beans and rice and we all shared the tortilla chips and salsa that came with it.  It was delicious. 

We cleaned up the table and did the necessary dishes.  Trish opened her gift from Ed which was a cat t-shirt and a card.  

We played my What Do You Meme game, Apples to Apples, a new card game I got called Trash Pandas and a rousing game of Trains.  Learning Trash Pandas was quite the experience.  Ed understood the directions differently than we all did.  We had to explain it several times and we all eventually agreed.  It was intense.  Of course we ate popcorn while we played, it's just what you do.  

We did make Amy play some of the games with us even though she just wanted to sit on the couch in front of the TV playing on her phone.  We told her it was her mom's birthday and to come over and play games.

We stayed up well past midnight and I really needed a quick shower since I was in that pool table room vacuuming.  I was probably covered in dust and cat hair.  We went to bed and this time I found an extra blanket since the night before I was cold.

Sunday, November 22 

I had set my alarm for 9:45 but got up earlier around 9:30 to pee.  I ended up just laying back down and looked at my phone for a bit.  We heard a knock at the door and Trish came in.  She told us that we should get ready to go quickly because we had to go over to Shelly's house to visit Grandma Bonnie, I guess she wasn't doing very well.

She had recently moved in with Shelly and Tony so she could be taken care of better.  Before that she was in the hospital being treated for bed sores and a foot injury.  Over the past year and a half she was basically in a concentration camp.  The care team at that faculty were terrible.  She was served cold food, had subpar individualized care, she was in a wheel chair and needed help with the bathroom and showers and such and she just felt like she was basically being ignored.  We found out they weren't taking care of her very well and were hiring cheap labor so they could make money without having to spend a lot.  They were reported when Shelly took her out of their care.  It was too late, she needed to be taken out of there much sooner.

Trish drove Amy and Ed while Ben and I drove separate and headed up the hill to Shelly's house.  The only extra person who was there besides us was Heidi and she and Shelly were working on some paperwork, genealogy stuff and going through pictures.  Bonnie could only handle a couple people at a time so Trish went in there for a while, then Ben and Amy and I went in there for a while.  She would open her eyes and acknowledge us and then closer her eyes because it was comfortable.  Sadly, there is an appearance of someone who is on their way out soon and she had unfortunately started the process.  I've seen it with Grandma Karen's husband Pat, her brother Sonny and my Grandmother Eileen.  It's really hard to handle emotionally.  Since Bonnie is Ben and Amy's grandma, I went back in the living room so they can spend as much time as they wanted to with her.  

We were over there for at least a couple hours.  Everyone knew we couldn't spend all day there because more people were on their way to come see Bonnie from Oregon.  For some reason I knew this would be the last time we would see her but I didn't say anything because I didn't want to upset anyone.  Ben said that he would try to leave work early so he could come see her in the next few days.  We all had discussed and planned to come for Thanksgiving on Thursday at Shelly's (granted that things improved and we were able to come over) and then have Thanksgiving at my house on Friday with my family.  We gave out hugs and we told everyone to keep us posted about what was going on.

We drove back to Bonney Lake and Ben and I decided to grab a few caches on the way back to the house.  We stopped at Wingin' It (GC8KFRY) which was at the Buffalo Wild Wings.  We parked as close as we could near the rock wall and sidewalk.  I knew this would take us a few minutes because it was a rock wall cache and those were never easy.  We searched for probably five minutes before I found the bugger.  We signed our names, took a pic and put it back exactly how I found it for the next cacher.

The next one was further down the road towards Bonney Lake, South Hill's Historic Corridor #6 (GC7T8PZ).  Those ones are pretty easy since most of them were fake bolt's on the back side of the historic sign.  I got out and found it, signed it and put it back.  I think we have all of these caches now in the mini series.

The last one took us off of Military down a side road.  McMillin Reservoir (GC1EXP6) was just outside of the do not enter sign.  The only place it could be was on the guardrail, tucked into one of the signs or the fence or on the cement pillar poked into one of the holes.  It took a few minutes to find it but knew it could only be in one of these three spots.  We signed it, took a pic and put it back.  We headed back down the hill and up the hill into the back side of Bonney Lake. 

We made it back just in time. We all had a late breakfast of pancakes and bacon.  Ed wanted to make us pancakes on his griddle with his pancake flipper.  I made the bacon.  We had Amy set the table and get out the butter and syrup.  We were hungry so we put away a lot of pancakes. 

We cleaned up and Amy brought out her gift for Trish.  Amy works at Fred Meyer so she was able to get her a Seahawks snowman.

We played some more games throughout the day and visited. Ben and I got our stuff ready to go and packed it in the Edge.  We thanked Trish for having us over and she thanked us back helping her get all of that stuff done yesterday that she wanted to do.  We gave out hugs and then hit the road.  Traffic wasn't all that bad so we made it home in roughly an hour---which it usually does.  We unloaded the Edge, started some laundry for the upcoming short work week and noticed our cat tree came in the mail from Chewy.  We brought the giant box in from the front porch and Ben took some time putting it together.  Our kitties were coming home on Tuesday.

We got ready for bed and realized this week was going to be really busy.  Bring it on!

Next Adventure:  Welcome Home Wade and Oliver!

A Friday the 13th Covid Birthday

I really thought Covid would be under control by November.  Hahahahaha! Joke's on me!  I was really hoping that it would not interfere with my birthday.  But here we are.

Most restaurants opened by July and were doing well throughout the next few months.  Ben and I had been to my favorite restaurant, Buffalo Wild Wings a few times since the reopening.  I have been going to BWW for my birthday for at least ten years now and it's an easy place to gather with friends.  I had set up my birthday for that Friday night and I was excited to see my friends.  We were able to seat six at a table so part of us at one table and the other part at another table nearby.

I found out, through Doug and Jenn (who found it on Reddit), that BWW was closed due to a Covid outbreak within the workers so the ultimately closed the entire restaurant.  I was so upset.  Of course this happens days before my birthday even though it's been open for months without any incidents.  I effing hate 2020 with a passion!  I had to cancel my party basically the last minute and I was angry.  I just didn't care anymore.  I was so over this effing Covid stuff.

I just told everyone we would just have a family gathering this year with pizza or something.  Ben took charge of ordering pizza from Papa Murphy's, we had salad already and had people bring their own drinks with them when they came over.  Jenn messaged me to ask what kind of cake I wanted.  I told her either Funfetti or chocolate or something like that.

I took the day off from work because I wanted a three day weekend and I was upset because Covid was ruining my birthday party.  I slept in and it felt delightful.  I took my time getting ready for my day because I wasn't in a big hurry to get anywhere.  I did want to grab a cache for the day so I'm glad I saved the cache at Pints and Quarts off of College and Pacific, which was nearby, and I'm glad I remembered that I needed to bring a gallon of water with me to retrieve the cache.  That would have sucked to show up there without water.  Wet Your Whistle (GC8XXQA) was on the south side of the building near easy parking.  I was the only one in the area so I was able to dump the water in, grab the container and sign it without really anyone noticing me.  The water slowly drained out of the small hole in the bottom in the pipe.

I drove into the west side and stopped by Lindsay and Justin's house to drop off a cookie container from when she and I do Christmas cookies next month.  I stayed for about an hour chatting.  She handed me some of her homemade soaps she had been experimenting with and Justin just handed me $15 dollars in cache because they were not able to come to my party tonight.

I went to the Goodwill to look for some Christmas presents and found some good stuff and then went to TJ Maxx to see what kind of stuff they had for gifts.  I ended up taking home a $16 rave green Doug Baldwin jersey.  It was originally $150 jersey.  Score!

I stopped by Erika's work just to see where it was and what she did there.  She was the only one working on Friday so I just hung out with her for about an hour while she worked on her stuff.  I told her I had to get some groceries before I went home so I told her I would see her at my house around 6.

I went grocery shopping, went home, put it all away and started cleaning the house for people to come over. 

Around 6ish that Friday night, everyone came over, Ben got the pizza's and put them in the oven and I set up and decorated for my own birthday party.

I was irritated that this is how my birthday was going to be spent this year.  I sure hope I don't have to do this again next year.  Doug and Jenn brought the cake in the shape of a 37.  Jenn had the cake pans and accessories to do numbers and letters.

People brought their presents and set it on the table.  We ate pizza, talked about what was going on in everyone's world and just chilled.

I got a card with a gift card in it from Doug and Jenn, Grandma got me a hooked back massager for that one spot near your shoulder blade you just can't reach, Erika got me kitten food and toys for my kitten I was going to pick up a couple weeks from now and Mom and Dad didn't get my anything which was fine.  I didn't care that much.  She said she would have one for me in a few days.  I told her there was no hurry.

Everyone was over for about two hours and then they all went home.  Ben and I cleaned up, put everything away and chilled for the rest of our night.  I thanked everyone for the birthday wishes and then we eventually went to bed.  I really hope next year's birthday is different.  Fingers crossed!

Next Adventure:  Trish's Birthday Weekend in Bonney Lake

Geocaching and Chores on Veteran's Day

I am not a huge fan of having an observed holiday in the middle of the week.  I'd rather we observe it on a Monday or a Friday then we're able to have a three day weekend.  It just kinda messes up the flow of the work week but a free paid day off...sure I'll take it anyway.  

I had talked to Bev about possibly doing some caches in LBA Park that morning as well.  I had the puzzle solved and she had the final for the Zodiac Series that was put out in 2019.  I found most of them but not all of them.  There was one more I had to get to find out the final coords inside the park but just never went and got it so Bev provided the coords since we were going to LBA.  I told her to meet me  there at the parking lot around 10 and told her that Mom might be joining us.  I still had to find out what she was doing.

I asked Mom what she was going to do that day and she said she had to finish a quilt project so she wanted to go to Hobby Lobby.  I asked her if she wanted to go on a short adventure with Bev and I at LBA Park and she said sure as long as I came with her to Hobby Lobby later.  I told her sure.  We had somewhat of a plan for our day off.

That day, I got up, got dressed and grabbed a breakfast bar and my water and waited for Mom to get here.  We took the Escape to LBA Park where we pulled in and saw Bev's car.  She had gotten there minutes before we did.  I looked at my phone and came up with a plan on how to get these caches without a lot of back tracking.  I looked at the trail system on my phone and found the appropriate set of trails to Brought to You From East Asia I - Thailand (GC8G65R).  A lot of the leaves were falling and had fallen from our past wind storms so it made for a very colorful fall walk. 

It was dry so we didn't have to worry about wet foliage and super muddy spots.  I did expect to see mud puddles in the low areas though and hopefully none were going to be in our way.  I gently put it back into the lock n lock and hid it back where I found it.  

We moved on to the next one in that section of trails.  Bev had already found Zodiac Series:  The Long Awaited Final (GC8M7WJ) so she and Mom just enjoyed the walk as I zeroed in on it.  It wasn't hard to find since it was an ammo box just right off the main trail. I still have to finish the rest of the series before they disappeared. 

Instead of back tracking the way we came in, I decided to continue following the loop but we had to turn around because one section of the trail was severely flooded.  There was no way around it.  We went back the way we came and eventually got back to where we started at the junction of trails just beyond the fence we passed through.

The third cache we came for, Patch Takes Another Walk (GC92E0G) was along the edge of the park alongside the road we came in on.  While we walked towards it, we noticed a couple of people out in the woods taking pictures of some wooden structures someone had made with different sizes of limbs.  Mom went in there and took a few pictures.  We continued on our way to the cache.  When we got there, Bev and I remembered that there used to be one here years ago that has since been archived.  We figured it was going to be a similar kind of hide...a fake log.  So we spent a few minutes looking for the fake log and walked past it several times because it was hidden very well.  Bev ended up spotting it.  We took the lid off of it, signed it and put it back where we found it...with a couple leaves over the top.

We took the main road back to the parking lot since we were practically there anyway.  We thanked Bev for coming out and meeting us for a geocaching autumn stroll.  She said we should do this more and I agreed.  We just had to have some decent weather which now that we were heading into our wet, rainy winter, those days seemed long and miserable.  I told Mom and Bev that we now cleared out LBA Park once again...that is, until someone else adds more caches to the plethora of trails in the back forty of the park.  We all left and continued on with our day.

Mom and I headed over to Hobby Lobby to get her fabric.  When we pulled in, we noticed the giant line and decided, should we do this?  We have nothing better to do today.  We got out and waited in line.  It went faster than we thought it would.  We found Mom's fabric and browsed around for a bit.  Then we got in line to pay for our stuff.  We were in the check out line longer than we were in the store.  Once we were finally done, I wanted to go inside the Tractor Store to see if they still had the chicken coop gingerbread house kit.  Nope, apparently those go pretty fast.  Dang it.

Mom was hungry so we stopped by the Taco Bell on the way back to my house.  I haven't had Taco Bell in quite sometime.  We shared a couple of soft tacos and a chips and cheese nacho side.  Mom went home and I spent about two hour in the back yard raking the leaves and stuffing them into bags.  The trees aren't even in my yard and I have to clean up after them.  Grrr.  

I washed out the kayak that Erika left here since she didn't have room at her apartment and Ben finally got himself a kayak and a paddle after waiting for several months.  We will have to wait for some decent weather so we can go out and use them.  We still need a kayak rack for the vehicles though.  I smashed some of the cans in the garage, cleaned up the floor and moved our shelving into the dining room since we will have to soon anyway when Christmas is here again in a few weeks.  

Ben came home from spending his day of in Puyallup (he had to get his battery for his new car replaced) and we ate leftover chili while we watched Total Recall.  I definitely started to feel sore from raking leaves and putting them into bags earlier today.  I was excited that tomorrow was my Friday because I took Friday off so I could have a three day weekend for my birthday...even though I don't get to do anything fun this year for it.  Stupid Covid!

Next Adventure:  A Friday the 13th Covid Birthday