Thanksgiving and A Long Weekend

Wednesday, November 24th

My Thanksgiving weekend started early when I logged off by 1:30 because I had all of my stuff done and why not?  I put in my hours and logged off.  I went into the bathroom to put my hair up and decided that I was done with my hair being that long, so I called the salon Celeste worked out to see if she had any available spots. The girl on the phone told me she did, and I had to hustle to be there by 2:15.  I literally threw clothes on, shoved my feet into my shoes, grabbed my wallet, keys and a mask and was out the door in less than five minutes.  I had no idea what traffic would be like so I was really hoping I could get there before my appointment time.

I got there with two minutes to spare.  I was greeted by the front desk girl and within a few minutes Celeste walked me back, got the gown thingy on me and we got up to wash my hair.  We chatted about a bunch of things because I haven't seen her in person in a while.  She sat me down in the chair and cut away.  I pretty much have had the same haircut for most of my life.  She added layers and it was shorter but long enough to pull back in a ponytail.  It was nice chatting with her while she cut my hair.  I thanked her, paid and headed out to the Escape.

I stopped by the store to pick up some bread and other stuff before I went home. I had chatted with Ben about what we wanted for dinner, and he mentioned that we needed to go to Red Robins to use my free birthday burger.  Last year, we didn't get to use it because of Covid and the shutdowns.  I told him that sounded good, and I asked him if I should invite Doug, Erika and Zach and he said sure, let them know.  I told Ben that we would meet him there since he'd be coming from work.  Doug hopped into the Escape with me, and we headed to Hawks Prairie.  Erika said they ate but they would join us and maybe order drinks and a snack.

We found a parking spot, which took a while, and we were seated right away for five people.  Doug and I got drinks, Ben showed up and got his drink and then Erika and Zach showed up and ordered drinks and some appetizers.  

Doug and Ben got burgers and I got chicken strips.  We ate way too many fries and stayed for almost two and a half hours!  It didn't matter because none of us had to go to work the next day because it was Thanksgiving.

We all went home.  I started getting the house ready to host about 12 people for Thanksgiving and then realized I needed to go to Tumwater to take care of Alicia's dogs.  It was good timing because I needed to organize Charlie's dog stuff, so it wasn't everywhere.  I got to her house and made sure the chihuahuas went outside to go potty, that they had food and water.  I gave them their treats and they went back into the garage until I came over the next day.  I stopped by Fred Meyers for one of those three-tiered plastic bins for Charlie's things, got some socks for Amy (for Christmas) and went home. 

I cleaned, arranged stuff, vacuumed and mopped the floor.  I ended up going to bed late like I always do before a major holiday that Ben and I were hosting. 

Thursday, November 25th

I set the alarm for 9:30 and it promptly went off at 9:30. I groaned and didn't want to get up.  I knew I had to get up because the turkey needed to go in the cooker since it was 23 pounds and had to cook for about six hours.  

Meanwhile, I made McMuffins for breakfast and everyone came out of their rooms and ate the morning football game was the Bears and Lions and that one was a very close low-scoring game.  The Bears squeaked by winning 16-14. 

Most of the day was spent finishing up the cleaning, putting the tables and chairs together, the decorations, resting in between each task and finally getting ready to make the rest of the food including the potatoes, stuffing, beans and such starting at around 3:30.  We were pretty busy there for a while.    The afternoon game was the Raiders and Cowboys and that game went into overtime and the Raiders prevailed by three.

Trish, Amy and Ed showed up a little bit early and Trish offered to help get stuff ready.  The food was just about done when everyone started showing up around dinner time.  We got all the food onto the dining room table, and we had quite the spread of food too.  

We spent the next few minutes throwing as much food onto our plates as we could.  In the background, we watched part of the Bills and Saints game as we ate and visited.  I needed my quarterback to play well so I could win Fantasy Football that week.  Bills easily beat the Saints by more than twenty points.

We cleaned up the table and got both the marble boards out.  I had everyone bring quarters as we played a marble tournament.  We played four games before people got tired and wanted to go home.  I won two game which was nice.  I was tired of losing games all the time.  Everyone thanked Ben and I for a nice time and good food and left by 8:30 to head home.  Trish and Amy had to work the next day and couldn't be home too late.  Ben, Doug and I cleaned the house and washed the dishes, so we didn't have to do this the next morning when we didn't want to do anything.

We hung out for a while, put the house back together, I worked on my blog and watched Riverdale, they played their video games and stayed up so late that we went to bed pretty late as well.  I didn't care, I really didn't have any plans the next day.

Friday, November 26th

I got up around 10ish, got my clothes on, did my bathroom stuff and ate a light breakfast.  I loaded all the recycle up in the back of the Escape and Doug and I hopped in.  Today was dump day and for some reason this task takes like all day.  We took my recycle to the Rainier Transfer Station and then I dropped Doug off at Grammie and Grandpa's house with Dad.  He and Dad were over there doing something neither of them wanted to do.  Mimi, is Grammie and Grandpa's last pet that lives at home, and she wasn't doing too well.  She is well over 15 years old, and her body gave out other day.  She couldn't eat or move and was confined to her dog bed.  She didn't have a quality of life anymore so Dad decided he needed to put her out of her misery, or she would suffer for days.  He hates putting pets down.  He did not want to do it, but we had to.  We didn't have the extra money to take her to the vet to be put to sleep.  Doug went over there to help Dad dig the hole.  This was also something Doug didn't really want to do either.  

Meanwhile, I went over to Mom and Dad's house to pick up the truck and Mom said I had to take a tool back over to Dad and Doug, so we found that and threw it in the back of the truck.  I went over to Grandma's house to get her cans and then back to Grammie and Grandpa's house to drop the tool off.  I drove back into Lacey to grab our cans and Ben had everything ready to load.  We stopped by Doug's place to grab two of his cans and went to the "kingdom of dumps" or the Hawks Prairie Dump to get rid of our garbage.  This was the third visit this month and we've gotten rid of over a thousand pounds of garbage.  The wait wasn't as bad as I thought it would be the day after a major holiday.  We were actually in and out at a decent time.  It felt good to get rid of all that garbage.

Ben and I decided, since we were over here, to try and find the cache, Repurposed, Reimagined, Redefined - Three More R's (GC7VMA5), that was inside the park and ride portion of this complex.  We parked the truck and found the correct staircase but there wasn't a cache there.  The cache owner had replaced it back in October and we were the first people to search for it since there were no found logs since then.  We should have found it right away, but I think it went missing again, so we had to DNF it.  Bummer.

I dropped Ben and our cans off at home and went back into Rainier to drop off Grandma's cans and I gave her our new Kraken jerseys to sew the inaugural patches onto them.  I told her I didn't really need them right away but by Christmas since that is what Ben was getting for Christmas.  She said she could make that happen and I paid her $20 to do it. I went back to Mom and Dad's house to fill up the water jugs and to trade the truck for the Escape.  I came home and then went and fed Alicia's dogs, did some chores, put Thanksgiving decorations away, did some laundry, showered, ate leftovers and watched part of the Apple Cup.  This year we actually played well and won 40-13.  It's been since the 2012 season since we've won it.  It was a huge relief.  We should have won it back in 2018 when we were ranked #10, had Minshew and had a 11-2 record.

I had an opportunity to go to a Kraken game and so I paid my friends Antoine and Nikki for the tickets through a Venmo/Ticketmaster transfer.  Mom now owed me money.  (See blog post:  The Inaugural Season:  My First Kraken game vs. Pittsburgh Penguins, for the complete story.) 

I worked on my blog and watched Riverdale for the rest of the evening before giving up and going to bed.

Saturday, November 27th

I got up the next day around 10ish again and made some scrambled eggs, bacon and English muffins while we watched some college football.  We hung out for a little bit in the living room, I filled out Ben's sleep study packet, so they know what they are looking for when he actually gets to do the sleep study.

Doug's dog, Charlie, was in serious need of a bath.  He smelled really bad due to our wet, rainy fall weather we've been having.  He told us that it took two people to do since Charlie was a baby about water.  So, we all went into the bathroom and Doug held him while Ben and I soaped him up, rinsed him off and we all dried him with our raggedy towels.  I spent the rest of the morning doing laundry.

Mom came over in the afternoon so we could get some shopping done.  Craft day is next weekend and I wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to pick out our Christmas bulbs for the wreaths we were going to make.  I talked Mom into coming and doing it with us because it's been a long time since she's attended one.  The last one was probably back when we did the lighted Christmas tree paintings back in 2017.  I can't believe it's been that long, and life was so different back then.

Our first place we stopped at to check for Christmas bulbs was Hobby Lobby.  Nicole said they could have a bunch of different colors and sizes in packs of 50 or more.  We would need about 60 different ornaments of different sizes to complete our wreath.  I browsed the Christmas aisles and found a couple of things to bring home, but I just couldn't find the bulbs I was looking for.  I was dead set on some sort of crimson and gray color combo, but they weren't selling them in those colors.  I mean there were some but not enough to meet the amount we needed.  We paid for our stuff and decided to drive to Hawks Prairie to see what that Walmart had to offer. 

We parked, got our cart and perused the Christmas aisles...along with everyone else apparently.  They had a lot of colors to choose from but not crimson and gray, so I had to pick another set of colors.  I saw this really cool teal color and I paired it with silver.  I found some smaller accent bulbs to go with it as well.  Mom chose traditional green and red bulbs for her wreath and found some tinsel garland that would go with our bulbs.  I think we were all set.  We continued our regular shopping throughout the store.

We both needed to get some non-Christmas wrapping paper, so we went to the closest Dollar Tree which was over by the Safeway.  We went in and Mom found some really cool bag stuffers for her office, so she got some of that, we both picked up some birthday wrapping paper and some other odds and ends for the upcoming holiday and birthdays we were going to be a part of.  We drove back to my place, she helped me bring in my stuff and she headed home.  

We all ate leftovers for dinner while college football was playing in the background for a while.  Both Ben and Doug went and played their games and I worked on my blog for a while.  I was seriously trying to get caught up.  Since it was almost December and Monday was the first day for my elf on the shelf scenes, I went out to the garage to grab the bins of elf stuff.  I spent some time organizing it and getting some ideas for the upcoming week as Sportscenter played on the TV.  I went to bed shortly after.

Sunday, November 28th

We got up a little bit earlier today than we had the rest of the weekend.  Doug had set up today so everyone could go over to the house so we could finish it today.  He really wanted to get this done so he didn't have to think about it or deal with it anymore.  He was done with Jenn and so were we.  He needed to get his life back on track with someone who actually cares about him and doesn't isolate him from his friends and family.

Doug and I hopped into his car and headed over.  Dad met us over there with the truck and trailer, and we spent part of the day raking up the rest of the leaves in the front and side yard.  Of course, it was raining.  It was gross.  We loaded the rest of the stuff in the garage into Dad's trailer such as the BBQ, garbage cans and his tools and lawn mower.  He and Doug had to fix the gutter in the back yard because Charlie ripped it off when he was on his dog tether at some point.  Doug never bothered to fix it until now. 

I convinced Mom to drive up so we could take the remaining stuff to the Goodwill so we didn't have to take it back to my house so it can sit for months and be in the way.  I have so much stuff in my garage as it was anyway.  Mom showed up just as I finished raking the leaves in the front yard.  We told Dad and Doug what we were going to do and if they needed anything while we were out.  They didn't and we loaded the rest of the Goodwill stuff in the back of the Expedition.  Mom made me drive.  When we got there, the only one open, again, was the one in the West Side.  Of course, there was a line again but this time it went faster, and we were able to get done quicker.  We stopped by Costco on the way home because I was out of paper towels.  Mom dropped me off at home so I could dump off my stuff and she went home.  Doug was here with Dad unloading the stuff into the garage from the trailer.  Dad went home to go take care of his stuff he had to do the rest of the day.

Doug and I went back over to his house to take care of the last-minute finishing touches on it.  Doug called the carpet guy, an agreement was made for the next day, Doug shut all the windows, turned off the heater, the lights and locked the doors.  We left the place for the last time.  This chapter will finally be over.  Doug said that on his break tomorrow he was going to turn in the keys and get that stuff wrapped up.  We went back to my house, and we had so much cleaning stuff in our garage it actually smells clean in there.  I knew over the next few weeks, we will be going through a lot of Doug's boxes and organizing them. 

We ate leftovers for dinner again and watched Sunday Night Football and the Ravens beat the Browns.  We did a few loads of laundry, I worked on my blog for a little while and we all got ready for the work week.  I was hoping this week would be easy and no weird hang ups.

Next Adventure:  Cookies with Lindsay and Justin

Trish's Birthday Weekend

Trish's birthday was approaching but because it was on a Tuesday this year, we had to celebrate it over the weekend instead.  It's too hard to do birthdays on the weekdays.  The week before, we discussed what she wanted to do for that weekend, and we came up with a solid plan.  We were going to eat the food she wanted to eat, play games and fix some of the stuff that she's been sitting on for a while like Amy's shower faucet, the garage door and other little things she had on her list.  I told her we would head over on the Friday after Ben gets off of work.  Trish said she would have stew ready and that we had to bring croissants. 

Earlier that week, I went to Costco to get the croissants and other items we needed at home.  I made sure we had enough ingredients for the breakfast hash I like to make and enough snacks and drinks to take with us.

After work on Friday, I packed up an overnight bag, fed the kitties, changed their cat box and waited for Ben to get home.  It never fails though, whenever we have something planned after work, Ben has to stay late.  It's so annoying and they must know when he's busy after work.  After getting everything done and ready to go, I just sat there watching TV because now it was just waiting for him to get home so we could go.  I updated Trish as I knew more.

Ben finally got home, changed his clothes and got an overnight bag ready.  We put everything into the Escape and left around 7.  Traffic wasn't that bad for a Friday evening on I-5 north.  We managed to remember everything but a birthday card for his mom.  We stopped at the Fred Meyer for a card really quickly.  We didn't want to keep everyone from eating dinner since we would be eating it super late as it was.  

We pulled into the driveway, brought our stuff in, gave out some hugs and we all dished up stew and biscuits.  Trish had forgotten she asked me to bring croissants for dinner.  She said it wasn't a problem because she will eat them the rest of the week on sandwiches and the rest bring them into work to see if anyone there wanted one.  Trish makes delicious stew.  

We cleaned up the table after eating and Trish opened her gifts.  We got her a Swiffer mop for the hardwood floors and some fall decoration I got from my neighbor Rhonda, since she was giving a bunch of stuff away for free.  I saw some of the stuff I thought Trish would appreciate.  She put her presents away and we got the table ready for marbles, since we brought the marble board.  We played a few rounds of that and then some 10,000.  We ate popcorn and watched the Cougars become bowl eligible against the Wildcats.  It was a nice game and the guys looked like they were having fun.  Next game was the Apple Cup and I had a good feeling about this year's outcome.

We stayed up til midnight and then got ready and went to bed.  We had to be up by 9:30ish so I could make breakfast.

My alarm went off the next morning around 9:30 a.m. and I did my bathroom stuff and threw on some sweatpants and a sweatshirt and headed upstairs to start food.  I told Ben he needed to get up so he could help me make breakfast.  I got the potatoes going, since they would take the longest, got the sausages going in another pan and once the potatoes were done, I used that pan for the scrambled eggs.  Ben came up from downstairs and I told him to get the scones ready.  I had a college football game playing in the background as we cooked.

Ed arrived, Trish was up, and we were making a lot of noise so Amy would get up and be ready for when breakfast was done.  I set the table as Ben put the scones in the oven.  Everything was almost done.  

The oven beeped and all of my has ingredients were done so I mixed them in a bowl while Ben put his scones on a plate.  I even brought my raspberry jelly to smother the scones in.  The scones were the ones you would get from the fair.  We put all the food on the table, and everyone dug in.  It was delicious since I haven't had food like this in a while.  I paired mine with some of Amy's orange juice I found in the fridge.  We chatted about random things as we ate.

We cleaned up and I wanted to get two caches since it was decent outside and I wanted to get some fresh air.  We went to one nearby and had to DNF it.  There were just too many places to check and a lot of debris and leaves everywhere.  I saw our next closest ones were in South Prairie, so we drove there and found two.  South Prairie Sewer Outfall (GC4F716) and DOT Crash Guard (GC2JE91), both were easy to find.  We stopped by the Veteran's Park to look for the cache there.  I had found it with Bob many years ago.  Sadly, we could not find it.  Too many leaves to dig through and lots of rock hidey holes it could have been in.  I honestly couldn't remember where it was since it was so long ago.  We hopped back in the Escape and drove back to his mom's house.  

Ben got all of his tools together and started working on Amy's shower and the garage door sensor.  Those took about an hour to do.  The rest of the afternoon we played more board games including 10,000, rummy, Phase 10 and marbles.  It got loud but it always does when Ed is around.

As it approached dinner time, we got ready and had to remind Amy to get ready to go.  She was still wandering around the house in whatever she slept in.  Trish had to remind her to go get ready because we had reservations and had to get there.  We eventually were all ready to go.  Ed and Trish hopped into his truck and Ben, Amy and I drove to Mazatlan in the Escape.  

We walked in and didn't have to wait long when we agreed to sit in the bar.  We were seated and given menus to peruse.  She came back a few minutes later and took our drink orders.  That included margaritas, beer and lemonade.  

While she was there, we ordered chicken chimichangas, burritos and Amy's taco salad.  Our drinks and food were delivered, and we enjoyed every morsel and drop of it.  The waitress came back to gather our finished plates and tried grabbing Amy's plate and she basically grabbed it and pulled it away from the waitress, stating she wasn't done yet.  They were both in the wrong with how that interaction went down.  The waitress shouldn't have assumed she was done and asked, and Amy shouldn't have pulled her plate away from the waitress.  Then Amy thought the lemonade was refillable for no cost and she was mistaken so she didn't want another when asked.

We paid our bills and went back to the house.  I went the long way around and barely missed beating Ed and Trish to the driveway.  Ben and I started gathering up our stuff and cramming it back into the Escape.  We thanked her for having us, she said she had a great birthday weekend, some hugs were given out and we headed back home.  It didn't take us very long to get home since the traffic was pretty light. 

We got home around 9:30, unladed the Escape, got a shower in, watched the rest of the night college football games, worked on my blog and went to bed around midnight.  Ben had a 12-hour shift the next day starting at 10 a.m.  My next day consisted of helping Doug clean his house with the rest of our family. 

Next Adventure:  Thanksgiving and A Long Weekend

My Birthday Weekend

Thursday, November 11

This year, Veteran's Day was on a Thursday and so I decided I was going to take the Friday off because my birthday was on the Saturday and it didn't make sense to take a day off, go to work for a day and then have the rest of the weekend to do whatever.  I really didn't get to do anything fun for my birthday last year and it looked like this year wasn't going to be any different.  I honestly had no idea what I was going to do for my birthday.  I knew what I wanted to do but the weather was too bad to go ahead and plan for it.  This is why I wish my birthday was during the summer instead.  So, power trail caching in Walla Walla will have to wait again.

Just after our last paint day, last month, Nicole had already planned when our next one was.  Most of us work for the state and have Veteran's Day off, she planned to do our next one that morning at around 11:00.  I knew I could come a little bit earlier so we would have enough room at the table for everyone.  I got up around 9:30, ate a quick breakfast and told Doug jumped into the Escape so I could drop him off at the U-Haul place just off of Pacific.  He had to wait a long time and once he was helped, he found out Jenn only got the truck for a day.  He told her and she fixed the reservation online, so they had it for three days.  I took him to the truck and told him I would see him later that afternoon.

I drove over to Tumwater with my Fritos and cheese dip.  I saw that Nicole and her sister, Nikki, were already over there working on their painting.  Nikki was in town from Alaska to go to Lindsay's second baby shower (mostly for family) on Saturday and she wanted to try her hands on this month's painting.  This time we tried a new technique that involved shards of glass and glitter.  I chose to do blue and silver.  I found a seat, picked a canvas and had at it.  Nicole helped us along the way.  Sarah and her former co-worker, Michele showed up later that morning.  We had a great time working on our masterpieces.  Mine, turned out okay but could have been better.  We had to leave them with Nicole so they could dry.  I thanked Nicole for hosting paint day, and I would see her later.

I headed home really quick and then drove over to his house.  Jenn was supposed to be packing her stuff and I'm sure she was making this harder than it needed to be.  We loaded up some of the furniture that took two people into the truck and went through some of the rooms and packed up some of Doug's stuff he didn't grab the past few weekends we were here.  We put that stuff in the back of the Escape.  I was only helping him today and tomorrow because I was not going to spend my birthday helping my brother's ex-girlfriend move.

We asked Ben to come over and drop off the dolly and he stayed for a bit helping us move boxes to the truck.  It got dark and so we wrapped up what we were doing and called it a night.  We went home, made some homemade teriyaki chicken, watched Thursday Night Football, which turned into another weird prime time game that ended not how anyone thought it would, worked on my blog for a little bit and we all went to bed eventually.  

Friday, November 12

The next day, Doug and I got up before 10, I got some breakfast and we met Dad over at Doug's house.  Of course, the weather was horrible.  We spent the next few hours loading up large furniture, desks and more boxes.  Meanwhile, I loaded up so many cardboard boxes into the Escape and every time I thought I was done, there were more I found inside the house.  Doug said that she would not get rid of the boxes, and they just piled up.  He was glad to finally get rid of them.  We even stuffed some Styrofoam into the Escape as well.  Jenn said we could have the turkey inside the chest freezer she was cleaning out.  We already had one for Thanksgiving, so we decided to see if Erika and Zach needed it.  

We did as much as we could that afternoon.  Dad went to go see Grandpa and then drove back into Rainier since he had some other stuff to do that afternoon and Doug and I went to the Hawks Prairie recycle to get rid of the boxes and then stopped by Erika's house, since she has Friday's off.  She was diligently working on her thesis.  She took the turkey off of our hands, we visited for a little while and updated her on what was going on with the whole break-up and how difficult Jenn was making it.  We left and Doug said he was hungry.

I asked him what he felt like eating and he decided on Pho, so we went to Pho Hoa, near the Red Robin complex.  I haven't had Pho in almost two years...back when Nicole, Lindsay and I had lunch meetings once a month when we used to go to work in Tumwater.  I ordered the smallest size of chicken Pho, and it was tasty.  My body wasn't used to eating this kind of stuff, so it made me feel bloated and sleepy.  We came home and we each took naps.  

Later on, that day, I watched the World Cup qualifier, USA beat Mexico 2-0, Ben came home, and we ate leftovers for dinner and hung out the rest of the night catching up on our shows like Survivor.  

Tomorrow's my birthday!  Woooo!

Saturday, November 13

Ben bought tickets to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium for the 11 a.m. time slot.  We woke up with our alarms, had a light breakfast, got ready and headed to Tacoma to spend a few hours wandering around the zoo and aquarium.  Traffic wasn't that bad, and we made it to the parking lot without any trouble.  We parked in the duck lot.  We walked to the ticket office, Ben showed them our tickets, they handed us a map and we went in.  We decided on doing a circle and trying to see as much of the place as we could.  Since it was fall and the weather was disappointing, some of the exhibits were closed and the zoo staff had started putting up the zoo lights displays.

The last time I remember being at the zoo was on a 4th grade field trip.  Back then, the place seemed much bigger than it appeared today.  I know the place has been remodeled since 1994 but it was so long ago, I can't remember what it used to look like.  I do remember enjoying the beluga whales and they didn't have them anymore when we walked through the aquarium part of the zoo.  We meandered along through the wild animal exhibits, had a great time looking at the marine life, we got to pet a sting ray and even stopped by the gift shop to look at all the cute plushies!  We got a fantastic picture of Ben with the butterfly wings.

We figured we spent enough time there and walked back out to the Edge.  I wanted to find a couple caches on my birthday, so we checked the app to see which ones were closest.  There were two near the park on the way out.  The first one was On the Way to Salmon Beach (GC3DXGH).  We pulled up into the small parking lot, parked and got out to look for the cache.  I wasn't sure what I was looking for and neither of us understood the hint.  I checked a bunch of places and we finally found it tucked in one of the holes of the cement poles.  We signed the logbook and shoved the bison tube back into where we found it.  We hopped back in the Edge and went to the next one.

I saw just about a mile away or so was a TB hotel and hoped there were some inside for me to move along.  Champs TB Lookout (GC4XBV4) is not where we thought it was, haha.  I thought it was over by the bench on the other side of the road, nope!  It was in someone's yard at the wooden carving of Champ.  Champs is a legendary sea monster that lives in Lake Champlain on the US-Canadian border of Vermont and New York.  We found the hiding spot, found the combo for the lock and opened the cover.  I grabbed a couple TB's and an evil cache someone had made out of a fake tree branch and a nano.  Yes, we will hide it at some point.  

Ben was hungry so we stopped by a Taco Time in Fircrest.  We went through the drive through and shared a chicken burrito stick and some tots.  We didn't want to eat a lot because we were having Buffalo Wild Wings with our family and friends later on.  We ate our food as we drove back towards Lacey.

We made it home just in time for Trish, Amy and Ed's arrival.  I ran into Rainier to pick up Grandma and brought her into town because Mom, Dad and Doug didn't think they would be back from Federal Way after dropping off Jenn's stuff at her new apartment in time to get Grandma.  She was ready when I got there and headed back into Lacey.  We all played a round of marbles while we waited to go to Buffalo Wild Wings.  Ben had called a few days ago to make sure we had a couple tables in the patio area.  They told him to show up early so they can get it ready to go.

We all drove to Olympia and were there a half hour early.  Apparently, none of that information was passed onto the manager so there was a miscommunication between the staff.  Once, Cassidy found out, we were seated right way and got some free appetizers, which wasn't necessary, but we appreciated the gesture.  We got organized, ordered food and drinks and I made my rounds visiting with my family and friends.  It was so nice to finally have a birthday party after throwing one together last minute in 2020.  It felt great to finally have a normal birthday party again with my people.  We ate white cake with strawberries and whipped cream and opened presents.  I got a couple gift cards, money and some fun little thoughtful gifts.  Nicole made me a Seahawks wreath and it was pretty awesome.  I love handmade gifts.  The Cougar and Ducks game was playing on the TV in the background, and we held our own through most of the game.

I thanked everyone for coming, we all paid, and Ben and I wanted to give Cassidy a tip, but she couldn't accept it.  We ended up sending it to her via Venmo because we did appreciate the effort that she put into making her customers happy.  

We came home, watched the rest of the Cougar and Duck game and we barely lost but the Huskies lost, we relaxed a bit and went to bed. 

Here's to 38!

Sunday, November 14

Sadly, my four-day weekend was almost over.  That morning, I slept in, made a light breakfast, finished some laundry, watched some morning football and then decided to go to the Walmart in Hawks Prairie so I didn't have to do it during the week.  Traffic was stupid for it being a Sunday afternoon.  I thought more people would be at home watching football.  Our game with the Packers started at 1:30 and I hoped that we actually played football this time.  This season has been so disappointing.  

I got groceries, watched some really dumb people in front of me using the self-checkout and had to wait a long time for them.  I finally got to ring up, paid and headed home.  I unloaded groceries and put them away.  I saw the Seahawks game was really sad with us being down 3-0 at halftime.  Our defense was hanging in there but not for long.  We made chicken salad sandwiches and watched the rest of the really terrible game.  We ended up losing 17-0 and were given Wilson's first NFL shutout. 

I changed the plastic shower curtain liner in our bathroom, did some shredding, worked on my blog, petted the kitties and did some of the dishes.

We watched Sunday Night Football and got out all the ingredients for dinner.  We made lasagna, salad and Texas Toast garlic bread.  After dinner, we cleaned up the kitchen, talked to Trish for a bit, Ben gave himself a haircut, he showered, and then played his game for a while with Josh.  I got cleaned up and got ready for the upcoming work week.  

It's sad that four-day weekends go by super-fast.  This wasn't the ideal birthday weekend, but I was happy to spend it with family and friends.  I was excited for my upcoming chiro and massage visit on Tuesday.

Next Adventure:  Trish's Birthday Weekend