Some Geocaching and Walter's Birthday Party

We got to talking to Wendy about a month earlier and she said to mark our calendars for the 29th because that's when they would be celebrating Walter's 60th birthday and she would like us to come.  I told her that I would write it on the calendar and let Ben know.  I asked if we needed to bring anything and she said no, since it was being catered by one of Walter's favorite places.  I asked her what time we needed to be there, and she said around 3:30. I told her we would see her then.  She said looking forward to it!

I was at the store a few days before his party and asked Ben if we wanted to get Walter a gift.  He said, that would be nice and what I had in mind.  I said, would he like one of these?  I sent him a picture of one of those oversized bottles you would put money or something else in.  It was green and had a Seahawks logo on it.  We knew Walter loved the Seahawks and would go perfectly with his collectibles.  Ben said sure and wondered what we were going to put in it.  He asked Wendy and she said an assortment of sugar free candy.  That was totally doable.  When I went to go look for some sugar free candy, it had been wiped out everywhere.  With the snow, Covid and truck strikes, the store really needed to go to the store.  I did find a couple bags to dump into the bottle.  Ben imagined filling the bottle to go differently but I told him this was the best I could do.  I wrapped it up and we wrote in his card.

That day, I got up by 10, ate a quick breakfast and got my stuff ready.  It was really hard to get Ben out of bed but he promised he would so we could leave early.  I wanted to fix a few of my geocaches and find a few since the day was going to be nice.  I had to constantly get after Ben because he would find ways to stall getting ready.  

We finally left by 11:30. We went the back way through Spanaway so we could fix a couple caches along Hwy 507.  Our first stop was in McKenna, just to check on The 507 Series: McKenna, Wash. (GC8MCGV).  The place I hid it at originally disappeared, so I had to move it and create a new cache back in 2020.  I got out of the Escape and noticed my cache was on the ground out in the open.  The post, its former hidey hole, has been compromised.  I will have to move it.  I changed out everything and hid the new container near the power pole hidden amongst the rocks.  At least there, it could be covered up out of sight.  

Next, we drove to Roy.

The 507 Series: Roy, Wash. (GC3AMVP) has been a difficult one to keep around.  For the longest time no one bothered it, it was never missing, and it was just one I didn't have to worry about.  The rock I hid near it moved to another location so two years ago I had to move the cache to where the rock moved to.  Then it was fine until the container went missing.  I had to disable it for about a week or so.  I parked at the nearby gas station and brought an entire new cache with its code and hid it better near the rock.  I sure hope it stays put for a while.  

We got back on 507 and headed for Spanaway but I pulled over so Ben could get Pacific Harbors (Glacier View) Cache to Eagle #5 (GC256PW) before we left Roy for good that afternoon.  He was tall enough to reach it.  I found this one with Mom many many years ago when I was still considered a newbie.

We pulled off at the park and ride at the intersection of where Hwy 507 and Hwy 7 meet.  I really didn't need to check The 507 Series: Spanaway, Wash. (GC3V7QF) but I did since we were here.  I needed to see the condition it was in.  First off, I found it not in its original hiding spot...it wasn't even in the tree, so I changed out the container and stuck it where I had hidden it back when I put this series out in 2012. 

Before we left the park and ride, I checked my app to see where we needed to go next.  I wanted to at least get a couple caches before we went over to Walt and Wendy's house.  I saw one that was nearby called (Not) Ocean Front Property at Granny's (GC8JXGQ) and made our way to it.  We drove through Elk Plain and got on a side road towards Graham and I noticed that this was the way I went when I picked up Wade two Novembers ago.  We continued following the roads and pulled into a housing development and as we got closer to the ground zero, I noticed that I've been to this house before.  Did I forget to log this when I found it ten years ago?  Then I looked at the cache and when it was placed...it was definitely a replacement cache and I have been here before for the prior one that used to be here.  I went out and grabbed it, brought it to the Escape, we signed it and put it back.

We got back on the main road and followed it to Frederickson.  I knew there was a Safeway over here so we could pick up our veggie tray.  Ben said it was great timing because he had to use the restroom and I needed to find a snack soon because I was getting hungry.  We picked up the veggie tray, I got a lunchable and Ben went and used the restroom.  I sat in the Escape and ate my lunchable while I listened to one of my podcasts.  I got done and decided that I should pee before we left.  I ended up crossing paths with Ben and told him I was gonna go pee and handed him the keys.

I hopped back in the Escape and told Ben we were headed to Reflect and Rail 2 (GC85GK1) and it was going to be a tricky one because we had to find a place to park and then we had to walk across the busy highway to the guardrail, opposite of where we parked.  Fun times.  We tried parking on the same side of the street as the cache, but it was private property. We did a U-turn and had to park at Ricky J's Restaurant and Bar.  Ben and I got out and saw there was a break in the traffic so we ran across the street to the guardrail.  We found it quickly, got our names on it and then had to find another break in the traffic to run back across.

We got back to the Escape, and I checked my phone to see if there were any more caches around the immediate area.  I did see one that I DNF'd with Bob back in 2012 and never went back to avenge it.  TJC-1-CANYON-160TH (GC3PDC9) was in an obscure place and I knew I should have parked away from the driveway, but I pulled in and the person who lived there came out.  I really don't like talking to people.  I just want to get the cache and leave.  Ben started talking to the person and I got in the Escape to move it to another location.  I turned around and parked it near the driveway but tried to be out of the way of the driveway.  Ben didn't like how I parked so he got in and parked it kitty corner on the other road at a gravel pull out.  I went and looked for the cache while Ben sat in the Escape on his phone.  I tried to hurry because I didn't want to be here very long... just in case the driveway guy came out to see what I was doing.  I did eventually find it.  Yesss!  I can now avenge this DNF.  I walked back to the Escape, and I looked at my phone app to see if there was at least one more in the area we could get.

I saw there was one at the South Hill Park that we didn't have yet.  I am not sure why we didn't get Mammoth's Soccer Cache (GCP2AQ) the last time we were here (which was a couple month's back) or when Bev and I came out here many years ago.  Oh well.  We parked and because it was a nice day, there were a lot of people at the park and on the Nathan Champman Memorial Trail.  We started our half a mile walk down the trail.  It was a nice walk.  There were lots of people walking their dogs and their small children. 

We made our way to ground zero and of course we chose the wrong side of the bridge to start searching.  I figured that this area would be inundated with water during certain parts of the year so the other side of the bridge would most likely be where it was hidden.  We got off the trail and crouched down to find the magnetic hide a key on one of the metal plates holding the foot bridge together.  We signed our names quickly and put it back.  We walked back to the Escape and saw a lot more dogs and children being walked.

I had Ben call Wendy to see if we could come a little earlier and she said to come on over.  Since we were a few blocks away it didn't take us very long to get to their house.  We parked, grabbed all the stuff we needed and went to the front door.  They were very excited to see us.  I can't remember the last time we saw them. I think it was in maybe November.  We put our stuff down, they gave us our Celebrate Family and Friends board we had ordered from them a couple months ago and Ben and I each gave them $20.  I couldn't believe they only wanted $40 for it. 

We sat on the couch for a while catching up on all the crazy stuff, we've all done in the last few months.  I asked Wendy how many people we were still waiting for and she said Chris, Rosa, the kids and one more of their friends.  More were supposed to come but they have Covid and were self-quarantining.  Good times!

Chris, Rosa and the kids arrived shortly after, and the kids were getting so big!  It is amazing how quickly time flies by.  We visited with Chris and Rosa for a bit and then one more of their family friends came by, I think her name was Pam.  We chatted with her as well.  We got up and all loaded up on BBQ food.  We had three different kinds of meat, corn bread, beans...it was so delicious!  This was my kind of food!  Wendy had catered it from one of Walter's favorite places.  Of course, we ate too much.  We shared stories as we ate.  We had these little Bundt cakes for dessert.  I had a white raspberry one.  It was very good. 

We cleaned up and cleared off our plates and Walter went front and center to open up his gifts.  He really liked our present.  He opened a couple more from everyone else and then he told us about their large purchase they made during Thanksgiving.  Since they've opened their business and go to shows to sell things, they would have to pile everything into two cars and drive to locations.  Now, they would only have to drive one vehicle.  They purchased a truck that is supposed to be here soon.  It was currently on a ship in Mexico on its way to the dealership in Puyallup.  It would give them plenty of room to take their stuff to their shows.  They showed us a picture of what it was going to look like.

We hung out for about another hour or so and then thanked them for the invite.  Hugs were given out and we called Trish to see if she wanted us to stop by for a while.  We drove out to Bonney Lake through the back way.  When we got there, we hung out, chatted, ate popcorn and played a game of 10,000.  I lost.  We thanked them for having us over, even though it was a short time this go around, more hugs were given out and we started heading towards home.  We went the same way home, the back way.

We didn't get home until after 10:30 that night because we had to stop at my parent's house to grab the truck.  We had to go to the dump really bad because our garbage cans were full.  That is what we had planned for tomorrow...the dump and football.  We texted Trish to let her know we got home safely.  We did a few chores, got cleaned up and started getting ready for bed.  Today was busier than I thought it was going to be.

Happy Birthday Walter!

Next Adventure: Cache Maintenance and Some Papa Pete's with Bev

Doug's Gender Reveal Birthday Party

Doug had been having a rough couple months, since the October life change, so Erika and I decided to throw him a birthday party even though he didn't want one nor did he think that he deserved one.  Everyone deserved a birthday party whether they thought they did or not.  I asked her what kind of a theme we wanted to do, and she said to give her a few days to think about some.  I asked Doug what kind of food he wanted for his birthday dinner, and he said he didn't care.  I did eventually get an answer out of him.  He wanted cubed steak, mashed potatoes and green beans.  I told him that I would make that happen.

Erika got back to me and threw around some theme ideas such as Star Wars, Disney Princesses, dinosaurs and SpongeBob.  I really liked the Star Wars theme, so we agreed on looking for decorations for that.  I'm glad I waited a few days because Erika called and told me she changed her mind.  She said she got to talking with Zach and they wanted to do a gender reveal birthday party.  I asked, why?  She said that Doug needed a little weird in his life and that the idea came from Zach.  I asked her what I was responsible for.  She said, to host it at my house, provide the food and get decorations.  She said she would make the cake and decide if she wanted to make him a boy or a girl.  It was super weird, but I went along with it.

In lieu of a gift, I decided on that Tuesday after work (on a dry evening) to clean and vacuum out his car because the car desperately needed it and I needed some exercise after sitting in front of my computer working all day.  I even organized his glove box by taking out all the papers that didn't need to be in there.  I put those in his file box with all of his other important documents.

I was in Tumwater on Wednesday for my massage appointment, so I stopped by the cemetery to see Grammie and then the Dollar Tree to pick up some pink and blue baby decorations.  I went to go pay for my decorations and the lady ringing me up saw the decorations.  Oh, you're having a gender reveal party.  In my head, I said, yeah...something like that but my mouth said, yeah, we are.  She asked, oh, when is it?  I said, next weekend (at this point I was just answering questions randomly.)  She asked me one more question, oh, do you know what it's going to be?  I said, no.  It was a surprise.  I paid for my stuff and she told me to have a fun gender reveal party.  I thanked her as I walked towards the door to leave.  Well, that was fun.

That Friday, I went shopping for all the food because I had the day off.  We were supposed to go get our Covid booster shots that afternoon at the Yelm Walmart, but Walmart called and canceled them because they were short-handed due to Covid.  Instead, we had to do it another day which was probably going to be after work the next Friday as walk ins.  Doug said he was probably going to do it on Tuesday since he had Wednesday off.  Doug came home early, since he had a half day, and we went to the Walmart and then the Safeway.  He needed a few things and I had to pick up cubed steak and the green beans.  Doug offered to buy the green beans which was nice of him.

The morning of, on Sunday, I got up around 9:30, ate a quick breakfast and started getting the house presentable for people to come over.  I didn't go above and beyond but made sure the house wasn't a total disaster.  I let Ben sleep for a while since he was on a 24-hour shift the day before.  I vacuumed and then set up one of the tables along with the small table on the end.  I didn't want to set up both tables because it's a lot of work to take my work stuff down.

I had the Penguins/Jets game on while I cleaned.  The game went on to a shootout and the Pens won, 3-1.  It was a great win.  

Ben got up and helped me bring in chairs and decorate everything in baby pink and baby blue.  It really did look like we were having a gender reveal party.  The only thing we were missing was someone who was pregnant.  Mom got here early to help me make the cubed steak since I've never made it before and had no idea how long to cook it.  While she did that, I made the mashed potatoes.  It's been at least 20+ years since I've had cubed steak.  She also did the gravy because I don't do gravy.

Everyone showed up around 1 and Mom was putting the final touches on the gravy.  Doug really didn't look that impressed but deep down I knew he appreciated that we had a birthday party for him.  He saw the decorations and thought they were weird.  Erika threw Zach under the bus by stating that the theme was all his idea and that she just made the cake.  We all went into the kitchen and threw some food on a plate and sat down in the living room.  

The Rams and Tampa Bay game played in the background.  I hated both teams and didn't want any of them to win.  I really didn't want Tampa Bay to win because I want Tom Brady to lose and finally retire. 

We ate our food and chatted about random things.  Everyone asked Doug questions, and this was the chattiest he's been since Christmas time.  My guess is that he was just humoring everyone because he had to be there.  The food actually turned out pretty good and I am not a fan of cubed steak and gravy all that much.

We cleared the table and Erika brought her cake in.  I bought two sets of candles, blue and pink, so we arranged them all over the cake to make it look nice.  Before Erika lit the candles, she asked everyone what we think he's going to be, and again, everyone thought that was weird.  I had to think about this for a min.  What would Erika do?  Hmmm.  I knew she was going to try and trick us thinking she picked girl, but that would be too obvious, so I went with boy.  I heard a couple girls and boys as people were guessing.  

We sang happy birthday and then he blew out the candles.  We got him a knife and he cut into it.  HE'S A BOY!  Yay!  I was right!  We all made jokes about him being confirmed as a boy since you know, we needed confirmation.  I am not sure gender reveal parties were all that popular in the 1980's.  I think it's more of a 21st century thing these days.  We all dished up cake and watched the dramatic end to a football game the Rams were trying to give away.  I was getting rather anxious.

The Rams did end up holding on and I was so glad we were going to watch a Super Bowl without Tom Brady in it.  We were all marked safe from Tom Brady.  Now, I anticipated him retiring at some point over the next few weeks.  I am crossing my fingers!  Doug opened his presents.  Mom got him a couple of containers to put his stuff in, so it didn't have to sit in the garage in cardboard boxes and some clothes.  Erika got him a beard hat off of the internet, but it wasn't going to come for a few days and Grandma got him a couple gift cards for Starbucks.  He thanked everyone for the gifts.

Everyone was pretty much partied out and wanted to head home.  I went in the kitchen and started doing some of the dishes and I bought the right amount of food because we didn't have any leftovers to put away.  We had some cake leftover but that wasn't a big deal.  Everyone went home and Ben and I took the decorations down and put the tables and chairs away.  We watched the Bills lose to the Chiefs in the night game.  The last five minutes of the game was truly insane, and it ended up going into overtime.  It was a bummer because I wanted the Bills to move on to the Conference Championship.

Happy Birthday Doug!

Next Adventure:  Some Geocaching and Walter's Birthday   

Another Hike Up and Down the Sequalitchew Creek Trail

The day before Mom had an idea that we should take a family hike this weekend.  Mostly to get Doug out of the house.  We all agreed.  Mom talked to Erika, and she liked the idea.  Now we just had to decide where to go.  Mom threw around ideas such as the Mima Falls walk in the Capitol Forest and possibly the Sequalitchew Creek Trail in Dupont.  Either were fine with me and both allowed dogs on the trail.  Erika's car had a bum tire and she stressed out about getting it fixed so that morning she spent most of it worrying about how and when it was going to be fixed.  Mom helped her figure it out, so we got a later start on the morning than we intended.  Due to that issue, we chose to do the trail in Dupont since it was closer to us all.

Erika and Zach were going to meet us in Dupont and Mom and Dad were going to drive Mom's Expedition to my house.  Our target time was 11:00 and we told Erika to be on standby.  She just said to let her know when we left the house.

That morning, I got up around 9:30 and laid in bed for a while.  Ben had a 24-hour shift at the station, and he left that morning at 6:30.  I got dressed and ate some breakfast.  I kept reminding Doug that everyone was going to be here at 11 and he needed to be ready to go by then.  Of course, he laid in bed until Mom and Dad got here.  He didn't want to go but he didn't have a choice.  He slowly got ready, and Erika and Zach were getting really impatient.  I told her we were getting in the Expedition and leaving in a few minutes.  

I went the back way down Yelm Highway to 510 to Reservation Road and finally to Mounts Road to get onto I-5.  It was a short stint on I-5 and took the Dupont exit.  I followed the main road through Dupont and found the road I needed to turn down to park at the city hall parking lot.  Erika and Zach were already there and ready to go.  We got there just before noon.  We unloaded and got everything we needed and made sure all the dogs had their poo bags and such.  Zach walked Emmett, Erika walked Toby and Doug walked Charlie.       

It was a nice walk.  It was a little chilly, but it also was January.  I'm just glad to have a somewhat dry weekend so we could do something.  Charlie and Toby misbehaved a little bit while they walked.  Toby is trying and Charlie needs to be trained.  It was clear as day.  I chatted with just about everyone while we walked down the trail.  We walked past a lot of people who brought their dogs and children.  Most of them were probably military families.  Emmett didn't like anyone from his "pack" to be ahead of him.  

We got down to the beach and the tide was just now going out.  I showed everyone where the railroad cache was and like I thought, no one really cared.  The tide wasn't low enough to get the only one I had left down here.  So, next time it will have to be strategic.  Mom took a bunch of pictures, and I took a couple pictures.  Mom got a photo of us with the posts along the beach.  It turned out pretty well.  We were down there for about 40 minutes or so.  

We started back up the trail.  It was pretty uneventful but a lot more people walked past us on their way down with their dogs and children.  I am glad we got there when we did.  

We reached the top of the trailhead and I think it was either Mom or Erika that had to use the restroom.  The porta potty was there and apparently it was frightening.  They decided that they could wait until they got home or to wherever we were going for lunch that afternoon.  We walked back to the parking lot, and all decided on the Meconis near Erika's house but first we had to drop the dogs off at their homes.  

We drove to my house to drop off Charlie and to grab my Escape because Mom had to do some shopping and Dad didn't want to go.  So, after we were done eating, Dad would drop Doug off at my house and Dad would head back into Rainier.  Erika and Zach took Toby and Emmett home and then decided to go grocery shopping because they thought we were going to take longer dropping off Charlie.  We also changed the Meconis location.  Erika didn't think the one by her house would allow indoor dining, so we went to the one off of Pacific instead.

We went in and ordered our food.  Erika and Zach still weren't there.  I thought they were just going to drop the dogs off.  We were halfway done eating our food when they rolled in.  I asked her, why did it take you so long to drop off dogs?  She said, we thought it would take you guys a long time, so we went grocery shopping.  I added, I thought we agreed that we were going to drop dogs off and head to lunch...I am not sure why there was a disconnect here?  Oh well.  Everyone was there and we were eating our food.

We chatted about random things and Doug's birthday the next day.  We cleaned up our table and we all left.  Mom and I went to the store in my Escape, Dad took Doug home in the Expedition and then went home and Erika and Zach went back to their house.  Mom and I were on a mission--to find a store that actually had distilled water.  Most stores are out of it, or you can only have like one or two.  Mom needed them for work for their sterilizing machines.  We tried Winco and we actually scored!  They had plenty of distilled water and they let us have more than two!  Then we went over to Walmart because Mom needed some stuff over there and then went to Big 5 so Mom could look at getting new work shoes.  She actually found a couple pairs she liked.

We were pretty much done, so I stopped by my house first to drop off stuff, feed the cats and to see what Doug was doing.  I took her back into Rainier and helped her load the distilled water into her Expedition and then headed back home.  I ate some popcorn, watched football, worked on my blog, vacuumed, did laundry and got cleaned up.  Today was a busy day and it was nice to get a hike in.

Next Adventure:  Doug's Gender Reveal Birthday Party  

A Friday Day Off: Errands, Geocaching and some Shopping

I asked Mom when her next few Fridays off were, and she sent me a list of dates.  Her first Friday was going to be the 21st so I asked her what she wanted to do on that Friday.  Of course, she said, I don't know.  I thought about it for a while.  We weren't sure how the weather was going to be so we probably couldn't do anything outside, so I didn't plan for an outside gathering.  Instead, I knew we all needed our Covid boosters, so I asked Mom and Doug if that was something they wanted to do.  Doug was all for taking a half day and Mom said that would be fine.  

I got onto the Walmart app and logged in.  I chose the Yelm Walmart because it would be easier for Mom.  I filled out the form and picked a time.  I chose around the noon hour since it would give people enough time to get ready and drive out there.  I told both Doug and Mom so they could book their appointments.  They did about a day or two after I did around the same noonish hour.

I took off that Friday and put in sick leave for it.

That day I slept in until about 9:30 and snuggled with the kitties.  I got up, ate some breakfast and semi got ready to go.  

Then the Walmart Pharmacy called and told us they had to cancel our appointments because they were short staffed due to Covid.  How ironic was that?  I was like, of all the days we could have picked, we were the lucky ones.  I was so annoyed.  I picked this Friday because the weekend wasn't going to be that busy and if I were to feel bad afterwards, I would be able to rest and not do anything.  The lady told me that they weren't going to be doing boosters until after Monday.  So that meant I would basically have to wait a week to go after work with Mom the next Friday.  The lady also said that we didn't need an appointment and we could just walk in.

Well, now what am I going to do today?  I didn't want to waste a dry day.  I called Bev to see what she was doing and if she wanted to go with me to Centralia to get two caches, I've had my eye on for a couple weeks.  She said that it sounded like fun, and it would get her out of the house for a while, she just had to go ask Bob.  She said it was fine with him.  I told her I would be out there in a bit.  I called Mom to see if she also wanted to go for a ride and she said sure.  

Before I went into Rainier, I had to drop off cat poop samples by the vet's office.  Oliver and Wade went to their annual appointment to check up on how their health was doing.  They both were doing well.  Oliver wanted nothing of it and Wade was cautious but skeptical.  They got their shots, and the vet tech gave them some treats.  They didn't eat them until they were safe and sound at home.  The doctor handed me some containers to put poopies in and told me to drop them off the next day.

After dropping the poops off, I went into Rainier and got Mom first.  She said we better be home before it was time to go to the gym.  I told her we would have plenty of time.  We drove down to Bev's and picked her up.  She had a sliver I had to dig out and Danny showed us his new boom machine.  It was loud!  We left and headed towards Tenino.

We got stuck following a slow guy down Ol' Hwy 99 and eventually passed him.  I hate going 10 mph under the speed limit.  We got into Grand Mound and made the turn continuing down 99.  We followed that road for a few miles and then turned onto Prather.  We followed that road over the river and reminisced of the other times we've been down this road for several caches over the years.  We found the side road that took us up to the Michigan Hill area.  The phones were spotty up here, but I had the cache loaded just in case.

We followed the directions to a dirt road that took us on someone's property, and we always hoped that the person knew about the cache or that the cacher that hid the cache lives here.  We noticed all the old trucks and farm equipment that has since been taken over by nature.  I turned the Escape around, so I wasn't blocking any driveways just in case one of the property owners needed to leave.  We all got out and found The Hobbit House (GC9KZT3).  I saw this publish a couple weeks ago and have seen photos posted of it on the geocaching Facebook group pages.  Mom went to go take photos of the old vehicles while Bev and I went to the cache. 

 It was a very well-crafted and maintained little hobbit house.  It was very cute.  You opened the door and inside was an ammo can.  We got our names on it, took a TB or two and got some photos of the cache.  Both Bev and I were definitely going to give it a favorite point.  We hopped back into the Escape and headed to the other one on our list.

I've been to this location, the small, unincorporated town called Galvin, at least twice since I've been geocaching.  I'm sure there used to be a cache here many years ago that we grabbed but I can't remember what it was.  I do know there was a series out here that started near this area and followed the road to Adna.  It was called the Lincoln Creek series and I'm glad I got to do it before it was archived.

We found a place to park.  We walked up to the unique corner, full of old antique signs, gas pumps, machinery and tires.  Galvin (GC9J1M4) was a straight-forward puzzle cache.  We had to fill in the numbers we needed and do some simple math for the coordinates to the final container.  I read off the numbers while Bev wrote them down.  Mom wandered around taking photos of the old stuff.  

We got the final set of coords and walked the short distance to the container.  We found the micro cache near a telephone pole.  We got our names on it, got a photo and put it back.  We all got back in the Escape and headed back to Rainier the back way through Bucoda.

We got into Rainier just as the school busses were driving into the high school.  I told Bev we would stop by the post office to get her mail.  On the way back to 507, we had to wait in traffic for a little bit.  We took Bev home first, and she was really happy to get out of the house for a few hours and I told her we had to do it again soon.  She agreed.  I took Mom home and stayed for about a half hour.  We talked about going on a family hike the next day to get Doug out of the house.  Mom got Erika and Zach on board.  All the dogs were going to come too.  Dad sent me home with a turkey since they somehow had two of them.  I guess there is a turkey dinner in our near future.  

I headed back home, got the mail and Mom called me to tell me something I never thought I would hear from her.  Someone I used to hang out with passed away suddenly the week before and we found out through his Facebook.  The rest of that night (and the rest of the weekend) I thought about Darren Best and how outgoing and friendly he was.  I really enjoyed being around him.  The world lost another good person. 

I then decided to go to Costco and Walmart for a couple things (for Doug's birthday party on Sunday) and then asked Ben what we wanted for dinner, and he said, since it was Friday, just get a pizza.  So, I came home with pizza.  We ate pizza, watched Cobra Kai and The Book of Boba Fett.  He went to go play his video games with friends and I ate popcorn, watched random movies on Netflix and worked on my blog.  I was so glad for a weekend.   

Next Adventure:  Another Hike Up and Down the Sequalitchew Creek Trail

NYE and New Year's Day

Thursday, December 31

I stayed up way too late the night before, but it was so nice to not be at work for another three days.  I really enjoy this time of year because we get to miss a bunch of days of work and get paid for them.  I also got up late, but it was nice to sleep in.  Ben went to work, and Doug drank the night before and peed on the bathroom floor.  Ben and I put an end to his drinking in our house.  If he doesn't follow the rules, then he has to find a new place to live.

I turned on my bowl game.  This year the Cougs were supposed to play Miami at the Sun Bowl but Miami as in Covid protocol and had to back out.  We were paired up with Central Michigan instead when their opponent, Boise State, also backed out because of Covid.  I think this is the third year in a row Boise State has made a bowl game but couldn't play for one reason or another.  Anyway, the first half our game was pretty bad.  Central Michigan had a 21-0 lead going into the locker room.  I really couldn't be that disappointed though, most of our starters were seniors and they opted out of the game.  It really did seem at that point that it was going to be a heavily one-sided game.

Well, we woke up a bit in the second half and we actually had a chance to win the game but came up short, we lost 24-21.  At least we ended the season above 500 and we did win the Apple Cup after being disappointed since 2012.  So, the season to me wasn't a huge loss.  It still would have been nice to end the season on a win though. 

Then to make matters worse, the whole world got some really bad news earlier that morning.  My favorite celebrity, Betty White, passed away that morning.  It was a huge loss and at first, I thought it might be another hoax, but it wasn't.  She was a few weeks shy of her 100th birthday and there was a huge celebration lined up for her.  It was just terrible news.  The whole world was truly saddened that day.  I wrote a Facebook post because I wanted to let people know how I felt that day.  

"What a terrible way to end 2021.  I just heard my favorite celebrity died this morning at the age of 99, just weeks away from her 100th birthday.  I was looking forward to it and I'm sure she was too.  I was drawn to her when I was a little kid watching the Golden Girls, one of my favorite TV shows in the 80's and 90's.  Yes, it sounds weird for a kid under 10 years old to love the Golden Girls, but I did.  Her character, Rose, was hilarious.  As I got older, I loved watching her old shows and movies she starred in.  One of my favorites, The Proposal, was absolutely awesome!  Her dance to Get Low, by Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz, was probably the best thing ever! I will miss her comedy, her activism with animals, her wittiness, her kindness and the way she entertained us for many decades.  We lost an American treasure.  The honorary WSU Coug will be greatly missed!  RIP Betty White!"  

I ate lunch and watched more football.  I gathered the recycle and dog food and headed towards Erika and Zach's house.  I stopped at Costco for grapes and then went to the Hawks Prairie recycle to get rid of all the paper and plastic we've accumulated since Christmas.  It was a lot of stuff.

I drove over to Erika's house to drop off some dog food, pick up the rest of my Christmas present and to talk about Doug and his issues.  We were trying to figure out ways we could help him get over this self-destructive hole he was in.  I was over there for about an hour chatting. 

 I called Ben and told him that we needed to find a cache today for the last day of the year since we got a badge for it.  I told him to meet me over near Huntamer Park for a cache called Mobility 2 (GC9E14X) and when we pulled up to it, we saw all the snow that was pushed up against the fence.  I looked at Ben, I don't think we're going to find this one today.  There's too much snow here.  He agreed.  I looked at my app and saw there was one closer to our house at the substance abuse health center off of College Road.  I followed Ben, we made the turn into the facility, and he drove right by it and made the circle again.  I'm sure we looked like dorks but thankfully it was late enough that there weren't that many people around.  We found Magically Minty (GC9G) on the ground, threw our names in it, got our photo and we put it back where we thought it was supposed to go...hidden from view.

We went home and I got started on my black-eyed pea dip for Nicole and Del's NYE party.  I did the dishes as I went, cleaned up the house a little, watched some of the bowl games and Ben played his game with Josh for a while.  We got ready, packed everything into the Escape and headed into Tumwater.  We noticed some places on the highway were still icy but overall, the roads weren't that bad.  We parked in front of their house, unloaded our stuff and headed in.  We took a few minutes to settle in before digging into the delicious food. 

Nicole made shredded chicken tacos and all the fixin's.  It smelled so good.  We all got plates and loaded them up with all the good stuff.  We stuffed our faces with tacos, salsa, tortilla chips, my bean dip...which went well with the taco theme and sorta watched the Office but mostly caught up on what we've all been doing since the last time we were together.  

After food, we started Jackbox, since it didn't require a lot of setting up.  We just chilled on the couch and played together on our phones.  We all love the drawing games.  They are just too funny!  Del's friends from Seattle arrived around 9:00 p.m.  There were three of them, two guys and a girl.  We introduced ourselves, they ate and joined in with the Jackbox festivities.  We pretty much played that until almost midnight.

Nicole got all of our NYE traditions ready.  We turned on the TV so we could see the Space Needle light up in colorful fireworks.  5...4...3...2...1...HAPPY NEW YEAR!!  We stepped on our right foot, kissed our people, drank our wishes with champagne, ate 12 grapes, ate some of my black-eyed pea dip and texted people.  Yes, we toasted to Betty White.   Del, Nicole and I lit off the rest of my Roman candles in the front yard...mostly for funzies.  We continued Jackbox for a little bit longer, Nicole went to bed around 1 a.m. and Ben and I gathered up all of our stuff, left one of our duplicate games for them to have, chatted with Del and left around 2:45.  Del's friends stayed and spent the night.  Ben and I got home around 3, unloaded the Escape, got ready for bed and went to bed around 4 that morning.  

I was tired and I know Ben was.

Friday, January 1

I slept in until about 10:30 and tried snuggling with the kitties but they didn't want to because they wanted me to get up and feed them.  So, I got up, fed them and then I fed myself.  I got a yogurt, half a blueberry bagel and had some grapes.  I found a bowl game to watch for a bit.  I worked on my blog while I waited for Ben to get up.

He finally got up around noon and I told him to get some clothes on because I wanted to go knock out our first cache of 2022 before we got busy doing other stuff or it got dark.  I picked one he would appreciate.  It took him a while to get ready and when he was finally done, Dad called me to tell me about Grandpa's estate attorney stuff.

We got in the Escape and drove to The Fire Station Creation (GC9J0G6) just off of Lily Road at one of the many fire stations in Lacey and Olympia.  We found a place to park out of the way got out and immediately spotted the cache in the corner at the fence.  The cache owner had made this cute little fire hydrant and got permission to hide it on this property.  It was an easy find in the snow.  We signed our names, took the trackables and of course, got some photos in.

We went home, I walked the dog around the snow-filled neighborhood while Ben made some homemade McMuffins.  

We watched the Rose Bowl and ate breakfast which was my second breakfast.  The Rose Bowl this year featured Utah and Ohio State and it was a wild game.  Ben got bored and went to go play his game for most of the day.  I worked on my blog, logged my caches, Instagrammed my pics and continued watching this high scoring game. Ohio State ended up beating Utah 48-45.  The defense was pretty much non-existent.

I did chores, watched pretty much all the bowl games, worked on my blog because my goal was to finally get caught up and talked to Mom a few times throughout the day.  It was a pretty chill first day of the year.  Let's hope nothing else bad happens and that things improve.  I am hoping that Covid finally phases itself out, I get to do more traveling and things go back to normal as much as they can be.  Every day is an adventure!

Next Adventure:  A Friday Day Off:  Errands, Geocaching and Some Shopping