Ben's Birthday Weekend

I asked Ben what he would like to do for his birthday this year and if he needed anything so I could have some ideas for presents.  He said there wasn't much you could do because of Covid.  He said that he and Josh were going to go do some airsoft during the day on Saturday.  Then we could do something with his mom and sister that evening.  So we planned accordingly.  Trish, Ed and Amy were going to come over on Saturday evening, stay the night, we would go out to dinner, play games and eat breakfast the next day.  Everyone was good with that.

Friday, February 19

On Friday, we both went to work and planned on meeting up with the Pablo's at Red Robin's because they wanted to treat Ben to dinner for his birthday weekend.  Ben and I had to drive separate because Ben had to work late and he was pretty bummed out.  That meant he had to hurry and feel rushed.  He did ask me to bring him some other clothes so he didn't have to wear his work gear.  I left the house and found a parking spot within the Red Robin complex.  Ben had also arrived and we met up with the Pablo's and they told us we had about a 40 minute wait.  So we went across the street to the Goodwill.  We browsed and I found a couple puzzles to work on because there wasn't much else to do during the winter time during Covid.

Our buzzer went off, we went back over and were seated right away.  Our drinks were brought over and we ordered our food.  I had a Red's Tavern Double with fries and a Coke and Ben had Whiskey River Burger and fries because their Peppercorn Burger was discontinued along with a lot of the other favorited items on the menu.  Covid sucks!

We ate our food and visited.  I haven't been to Red Robin since Doug's birthday of 2020 before the stupid pandemic happened.  That's over a year and we usually go at least once every three or four months.  I had to miss my free birthday burger in November because we weren't in the correct phase to enjoy it.  The Pablo's paid for both of our dinners (I did not expect them to pay for mine) and we thanked them for a nice time and dinner.  I had to get gas in the Escape before I went home.  

That night I finished listening to the Hide and Seek podcast, worked on my puzzle a little bit and got Ben's cupcakes done for tomorrow's party. Wade was trying to be a helper.

We both went to be shortly after.

Saturday, February 20

Ben got up around 7, got dressed in his airsoft gear and headed out to Steadman Road to meet up with Josh and other airsoft goers.  He spent almost the entire day over there.  

Meanwhile, I drove to Erika and Zach's apartment and dropped off some cupcakes and cookies for them, I stayed a bit and chatted with her and gave Emmett pets.

Next, I drove out to Rainier to drop off the recycle and then went to Grandma's house to drop off some fabric Erika bought her.  I went over to Bob and Bev's house to visit and to drop off a puzzle I got them the night before.  I stayed for about two hours helping with a puzzle which I didn't intend on doing because I had to get the house ready for when Ben's mom, sister and Ed showed up.

I thanked them for the hospitality and they sent me with a puzzle of my own to bring home.  I stopped by Mom and Dad's house for a bit and paid Mom for this month's phone bill. I played with Kirby for a few minutes before Mom had to get ready to go to the store and the post office.

I went home and cleaned up the house as quick as I could. Ben got home minutes before I did and spent time cleaning out his gear and getting cleaned up. I got the vacuuming done and some of the other little things.  Trish, Amy and Ed showed up like 20 minutes sooner than we anticipated.  They got settled in and I turned on the Gonzaga game while we waited for Ben to finish getting ready.

We all piled into Ben's Edge and drove to west side near the mall.  We pulled into the parking lot to Outback and saw the place was swimming in cars.  We were going to have to wait at least an hour.  Ben went in and verified that it would be an hour.  I was hungry.  I didn't eat much today because I knew we were going to eat a bunch of food for dinner.  We all didn't want to wait that long so we decided on something else.  Covid has sure changed the way we all go out to eat.

Ben decided on Applebee's and drove across the street.  That wait was going to be a half hour.  We walked over to Dick's, inside the mall, to waste time for a while.  We thought we wasted enough time so we walked back over and sat in the waiting area.  We sat there for probably 20 more minutes before we were seated.  I was beyond hungry now.  We made sure to know what we wanted when we were seated so we got our drinks and ordered at the same time so we could get our food sooner.  We at, I had chicken strips and fries and Ben had himself a steak because he wanted a steak and he WAS going to have a steak for dinner. We paid and headed on home for some games, snacks and drinks.

We got the beer out that I purchased from Total Wine and More a couple weeks ago.  I grabbed a variety of local beers.  We tried most of them and eventually one person finished a can.  I bought myself a 2 Towns Ciderhouse Cosmic Crip cider.

Next, Ben opened his presents, booze, socks, slippers, a mug and some cards and Facebook live his man crate from the Pablo's.  

We played Pandemic (which was super appropriate for what we've been dealing with) and then 10,000 followed by some random card games.  

We finally gave up, cleaned up and went to bed.  This was around 2.  Trish and Ed got the guest room and Amy got the couch.

Sunday, February 21

We got up between 9:30 and 10.  Wade and Oliver were hungry so they kept pestering us.  I used the restroom and washed my face and then came out to start breakfast for everyone.  Since there are five of us, the egg, potato and sausage scramble seems to work and feed everyone.  I had Ben get up so he could make the scones.  He took is sweet time but he eventually got up and got them done.

Breakfast was finally done so we ate.  Everything turned out pretty good.  Trish and Amy did the dishes, Amy was reluctant to help but she did eventually.  Afterwards, everyone got ready to go.  They packed up their stuff and Ben and I put on some different pants.  

We headed out to Puyallup to take care of some family stuff with his aunt.  Ben and Amy had to be there at the same time so his aunt didn't have to say everything twice.  We picked up one cache, Fence Part 1 (GC85R4M) on the way there while we waited for Trish and Amy to drop off Ed at his apartment. 

We were there for about an hour talking about the paperwork his aunt had prepared.  We thanked her and continued on with our day.  Since it was dry I asked Ben if we could find some caches on the way home, he said sure.  Trish and Amy headed home with a stop at the grocery store.

I saw there were two up ahead at Meridian Habitat Park.  I told Ben that I haven't been to this park it at least ten years.  The last time was with Bob and Bev picking up caches which have since been archived.  We parked and walked to the first one, Weird Swing 2 (GC8MG5B) and then to the second one Weird Swing (GC8KJFG) which was on the other side of the playground...so we had to walk past a bunch of people with kids and a barking dog.  Both were easy finds.  We walked back to the Edge.

We drove across Meridian and onto 144th for Hemlock Pond (GC22XKG) on a guardrail and a little further up the road at an intersection "Plugged" (GC4CN6F) which was on a fire hydrant in plain sight. 

We finished off the day picking up Cheese It!  It's the Fuzz! (GC6RVFQ) which was a very well stocked ammo box at a Pierce County Sherriff's department building.  We've been here once before and we thought it was missing but didn't find it because it was getting dark and we were trying to hurry.  This time we found it without any problems.

Went home the back way down Hwy 7 and 507 through Nisqually Reservation and onto Yelm Highway.  We got home, fed the kitties, started pork chops, rice and green beans for dinner while we watched Cobra Kai and Chopped.  Got cleaned up and ready for bed.  We had a super busy weekend with lots of family, fun, food and geocaching!

Happy Birthday Ben!

Next Adventure:  Grandma Karen's 80th Birthday Party

A Pacific Northwest Snowmaggedon

Whenever there is a chance we might get snow I want it all to come my way.  Last winter we barely got any snow.  Maybe a couple of inches in January 2020 but nothing really substantial.  I am always disappointed when we don't get any.  

In 2019, during our last snowmaggedon, we weren't prepared.  We didn't have a snow shovel and we should have had one because we do get snow when the conditions are right and it's usually a lot of it.  At the time, Ben worked at Lowe's but we weren't thinking, oh we should get a snow shovel because we are getting over a foot of snow.  That winter, all of the shovels were gone, that included every single type and not just snow shovels.  The snow melt was gone for those people who buy that...we don't buy snow melt.  So, we were left with our large spade shovel and that made removing the snow from the driveway rather difficult.  The first chance we got we bought one just to have.  Of course it arrived after all the snow was gone.  We actually joked about it further and said, "now that we have a snow shovel, watch, it won't snow for a few years."

That's exactly what happened.  It skipped over 2020, the worse year in human history, and snowed almost the same exact weekend in February just two years later.  It doesn't just snow, we get, "Winter is coming.  All of it.  In one weekend." type of snow.   

On February 11th it started lightly snowing at our house around 8:30 a.m.  The forecast stated that it would start snowing in our area in the early afternoon but it started a few hours sooner.  Ben didn't want any snow and always told me to shut up because he didn't want to have to run the plows on JBLM.  Unfortunately, he had to run the plows anyway so that meant he got to sleep in and go to work in the afternoon (around 3) so he could be there until 11 p.m.  My job was normal since I was working from home.  The only thing we had to worry about is if the power went off.  Which thankfully it didn't the entire time we had snow.

It snowed the entire day.  When I logged off of work I decided that our kitties needed to experience snow for the first time.  They each took a turn outside in the back yard.  I just tossed them out into the snow.  They both weren't sure about it, probably got cold and ran back inside house. 

Then I had another idea.  I grabbed a plastic laundry basket and filled it with some snow.  Placed a towel down on the floor and let them have at it.  I even made them a tiny snowman to see if they would play with it.  They did a lot of sniffing, pawing at it and even started licking it.

Ben would call and we would talk about some of his experience running a snow plow.  He said most of the time it was boring because he was just driving around and not really doing anything. 

The next day, we both basically did the same thing.  I worked and Ben slept in and then went to work around 2 p.m. again to run the snow plow.  I don't think it ever stopped snowing and the next morning there was quite a few inches on the ground.

I got pretty much all of my work done so I went outside and finally used our snow shovel.  There was 10 inches of snow on the ground around 2:30 p.m.  Shoveling snow is very hard work.  I got half way done and didn't want to finish it but I forced myself to.  I knew we were going to go way more throughout the rest of the afternoon and into the evening so why not get this amount shoveled or there will be way much more tomorrow and will be harder. 

I got into the Escape and drove it down the road to get the mail.  The snow was so high I actually had trouble driving.  The snow was touching the bottom of the Escape.  I did manage to get the mail, found a good place to turn around and headed home.  Yikes!  It's because they don't plow residential roads but only the main roads and arterials.  That evening I made chocolate chip cookies and used Ben's mom's cookie recipe.  They turned out really good!  Ben was at work until 11 p.m. and was glad to come home after that.  He was so bored.

Saturday Ben had a shift at the station and had to get up early and head into work.  He wasn't too excited that he had to drive on the roads to Tenino but he allowed himself some extra time just in case there were dumb idiots out on the roads.  He did text me to let me know that he made it to work safely.  I got up later, did a few chores, worked on my blog and decided that I needed some exercise so I cleared the driveway again.  The snow stopped and it started to warm up a little bit.  The snow had gotten heavier so it made shoveling even harder to clear off the driveway.  It took me a little bit more than an hour to do.

I then decided before it started raining to make a snowman.  I grabbed one of our plastic sleds and stamped down the snow.  The snow almost went up to my knee in some places.  Then I used the sled to scoop up snow to make a giant pile.  I shaped the bottom of the snow man.  Added more for the middle and then shaped that and then lastly added some snow for the head and face.  I went to the back yard to pick up some sticks for the arms, grabbed two cherry tomatoes for eyes, a carrot for the nose and a charcoal briquette for the mouth.  I added a Seahawks hat as a final touch.  My snowman was done.

I went back inside the house and did a bunch of of other stuff because the snow wasn't worth being in anymore.  It was getting warm and mushy.  That's the Pacific Northwest winter for ya though.

It pretty much all melted by Tuesday but the large mounds of snow the snow plows moved off the roads took about a week to melt entirely.  

Yay!  We finally got to use our snow shovel!

Next Adventure:  Ben's Birthday Weekend