The Long Four-Day Thanksgiving Weekend

Thursday, November 23rd

I bought our turkey from Winco over the weekend because I got a great price on it.  I stuck it in the fridge to thaw out for a couple of days.  The day before, we put on the counter to finish thawing out.  It was so nice to have a four-day weekend from work even though a short week of work always seemed longer than it really was.  I spent part of the week putting stuff away, cleaning and making sure we had everything we needed for Thanksgiving. 

The night before, Ben helped me make turkey cookies with Nutter Butter cookies.  I had found a recipe online and thought it would be fun to make them.  They were pretty easy to make as well.  I let Ben take the lead on it while I supervised. 

We got the onion and celery all cut up and took out everything we'd need and staged it on the table.  I baked Trish's round chocolate birthday cake so it could have time to cool.  I spent some time getting some of our presents wrapped, the Christmas letter done and did a few cards.  I wanted to get a head start before December hit.  I still needed to finish them. 

We got up around 10, ate a light breakfast and got started putting stuff away, cleaning the house, finished putting up the decorations around the house and Ben and spent some time getting the turkey prepped and ready to go.  It needed to cook for about 4.5 to 5 hours with the stuff inside of it.  Ben had way too much fun stuffing the turkey this year.  He made me take a series of weird pictures for him stuffing the turkey.

We spent the rest of the afternoon vacuuming, doing dishes, getting the tables and chairs out, everyone got in a shower, and I worked on Trish's turkey cake since she asked me to make her one. I found a really cool turkey cake online, but it was made with fondant.  I have never used fondant before, so this was going to be an interesting adventure.  

I watched a short video on how to do it first and then I tried my hand at it.  My large cutting board came in handy.  I had white and brown fondant.  Rolling it out was probably the hardest part. I got out my gel food coloring because I needed orange and red.  I mixed those up, made them super thin with the rolling pin and made two orange feet, an orange beak and a red gobble.  I got the brown out, rolled that out thin, got my large round portion for my cake and then I made two brown wings. I made some eyes with some of the white fondant. 

I got a cardboard base, put some icing down, the round cake, spread the chocolate icing on the cake and gently laid my large round piece of brown fondant on the cake.  It wasn't that bad, but it wasn't perfect.  I was able to hide some of my seams away from view.  I smoothed it out, added my eyes, beak, gobble, feet and wings.  I was going to make the tail feathers, but I just bought some colorful craft feathers from Michaels and stuck them in.  I thought the completed cake looked pretty good.  I was very proud of it.  I showed Ben and he thought it looked awesome.  

I got the table decorated.  This year I bought turkey name cards and placed them where I thought people should sit.  I wasn't sure if people would like them or not.  Grammie used to put out name cards when we had holidays at their house. 

Trish, Ed and Amy arrived earlier than everyone else did.  As it got closer to dinner, Ben worked on the potatoes, I got the stuffing ready, the rolls, Trish helped stir the gravy and we put the final touches on everything as more people arrived.  Ben carved the turkey and put it on its serving tray.  Mom added her desserts (she gets a free pie from work every year), her charcuterie board, Amy added her pumpkin trifold and Sonya put her charcuterie board on the table and placed her casseroles into the oven to warm up. We had lots of food. 

It was finally time for food, and I grabbed a plate and was the first one in line.  I was hungry after eating breakfast seven hours ago.  We all piled food onto our plates, sat down and ate.  We talked about various things from football because the Seahawks were currently playing as dinner was ready (we were playing one of the Thanksgiving games against the 49ers) to Erika's baby and everything else in between.

Grandma and Trish helped clear the dishes from the table and got some of them into the dishwasher.  I appreciated it because it saved Ben and I time after everyone leaves. I spent some time hand washing some of the bigger dishes because we don't like putting them in the dishwasher.  We cleared off some of the serving bowls and put the leftovers into smaller bowls and to go bowls for people to bring home.  We hung out and visited for a little bit.  A group of people played a card game while others ate dessert, and some were hit with the famous turkey coma and fell asleep.  I sat on the couch for a little bit before I got Trish's turkey cake ready.

The Seahawks lost to the 49ers because they suck at offense. 

We had a mini birthday party for Trish since her birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year.  She as much appreciative that we had some cards, presents and a fun turkey cake to celebrate with.  

Everyone gathered up their stuff, thanked us for the food and the fun and headed home.  Ben and I cleaned up the rest of the house, finished the dishes and put stuff away.  I ran the vacuum over the floor one more time because people are messy. I drove out to Tumwater to let Alicia's dogs out since she was gone for the long weekend visiting family in Yakima. 

I packed up stuff for the next day since we were going to spend a night at Trish's house for the second part to her birthday party.  She wanted to have a paint night.  Earlier that week, Ben and I bought her a starter kit including paints, brushes and a few accessories.  It was nice when we finally went to bed.  We were tired.

Friday, November 24th

We got up around 10 again.  I was still tired from the day before because cooking and cleaning for 12 people is a chore.  Plus, we were up way too late the night before.  We got ready, grabbed all the bags I had packed the night before (paint night stuff), our overnight bags, threw in a couple games. some snacks, put drinks in the cooler and packed up the recycle since it was getting out of control and needed to be dumped off at the recycle. 

It was my turn to drive so everything went into the Escape.  Our first stop was in Tumwater to let out Alicia's dogs and to make sure they had food and water.  Ben forgot his coffee so we had to drive back home again.  Lame.  We drove into Hawks Prairie to get rid of the recycle and hopped onto I-5 to start our drive to Bonney Lake.  I was so happy to see that there wasn't any traffic the entire way up. 

We rolled into Bonney Lake around 2ish and called Trish to see if she needed anything before, we got to the house.  She said she could use a few more eggs.  We stopped at Fred Meyer for some eggs and more beer.  We saw Amy on the way out as she was finishing her shift.  Of course she questioned why we were there.  We left and went to the house and Ed was already there.  We unloaded our stuff, got settled in, Trish made some chicken bits and fries as an afternoon snack.  

Amy got home, she ate some of the chicken and fries and then went and took a nap.  She's gotta learn how to go to bed at night so she gets decent sleep for work.  Sadly, this will be an ongoing process probably for a while.  Meanwhile, we played two games of Fire Tower, and I lost both games.  I hate losing at games.  As it got closer to dinner time, Trish ordered some pizzas from Papa Murphy's and Ben and I went to go pick them up.

We got back, Trish had the oven preheated, stuck in the first one while we hung out and watched the start of the Duck and Beaver Civil War.  I had about two pieces of pizza and called it good.  I didn't need to stuff myself.  We cleaned the table off, we put the other leaf in and then covered it with a sheet.

I gave everyone an apron, a canvas, their paint and paint brushes.  I had to borrow some of the paint brushes from Nicole the other day.  We got the tutorial all fired up and listened to the instructions while we all followed along. I've done these a few times so I kinda knew the trusting the process mantra.  Ed, Ben and Amy had a hard time trusting the process.  I had to keep reminding everyone that these paintings are done in layers and everyone's paintings are going to look different depending on the person.

We did this for about 2.5 hours while we watched the Ducks beat the Beavers.  I saw it coming but thought the Beavers would be more competitive than they showed.  We got in a group picture as well as some individual shots of each one. 

We helped Trish clean up, got the paint out of the brushes and the cups rinsed out.  Ed went home and we chilled for a little bit.  I decided I needed a shower, so I got one in real quick and then went to bed around 12:30.  

Saturday, November 25th

I had set my alarm for 9:30 and got up just before it went off because I had to pee really bad. I decided to just get ready for the day, so I washed my face and got dressed.  Ben was still asleep in bed.  I walked upstairs and Trish was up there getting breakfast ready.  I asked if I could help her.  I made the scrambled eggs while she took care of the sausage, bacon and the English muffins. 

Amy emerged from her room, Ben came up from the basement and we ate breakfast together while we talked about how the day was going to go.  After breakfast, everyone finished getting ready, Ben and I took the bed apart and put it back together with fresh sheets and pillowcases, we packed up our stuff and shoved it into the Escape.  We saw it was going to be a sunny day.  

We took separate cars and followed Trish and Amy to Safeway.  They bought three bouquets of roses. We drove to Federal Way first to go visit Trish's Mom and Dad, James and Rose at Gethsemane Cemetery.  I have been there once before with them back in 2020.  On the way there, Mom called me to see where I was.  I told her that we were doing a cemetery run with Ben's mom and sister.  Mom was going to go shopping and wanted me to go with her.  I told her it was going to be a couple hours.  She said that was fine.  I added that I would call her when we were on our way home. 

We got to the Gethsemane Cemetery, parked near the headstone, got out and Trish and Amy prepared the roses.  It was chilly so we all are glad we brought warm jackets.  I had Trish, Ben and Amy share stories about them.  It was fun to hear their stories as they reminisced about James and Rose. We stayed for just under an hour.  We got back in our cars and drove to the short distance to Auburn.

We rolled up to the Mountain View Cemetery.  I have been here a couple times over the years, once for geocaching and the other was for Bonnie's funeral in December 2020.  We followed Trish to the headstone, parked and walked over the wet grass to the resting place.  They prepared the roses.  Everyone said a few words, told stories and remembered some of the good times.  I actually spent some time with Bonnie, so I had some stories about her. 

I asked if we could get the geocache in the cemetery and everyone said sure.  We got back in the cars and drove to it since it was not a short walk.  I had them follow me to the posted coords.  We parked, got out and found the film cannister behind a tree.  We signed our names, got a group photo and put Auburn 2015: Auburn Mountain View Cemetery (GC64CW3) back in its hiding spot.  Trish thanked us for a great time, we gave out hugs and headed down to Hwy 167.

My original plan was to go see Ms. Hamel and Peg, but they were busy, so instead, we drove towards home.  We got onto 512 and merged onto I-5.  I called Mom to see if she was still shopping and where she was.  I had Ben drop me off at JoAnne's in West Olympia.  We went to Target, the Goodwill to drop off stuff to the donation center drive thru, went to McDonald's for a snack, TJ Maxx, World Market, the mall and then to Alicia's house to let her dogs out. From there, we went to the Dollar Tree in Tumwater and then she dropped me off at home.  We unloaded my stuff out of here Expedition, and she went home. 

While we were shopping the Apple Cup was on.  We held our own and probably should have beaten the overrated Huskies.  They got lucky with a hold on a 4th down and converted it due to that hold that wasn't called.  If it was called, we would have beaten them. Thus, ruining their season.  But it was part of the script, the Huskies were supposed to win, unfortunately.  I hate the current state of college sports.  Between the NIL, the portal and the dissolution of the Pac-12 because of greed, college sports are going to suck!

I texted Fitzy to see if she still wanted to hang out.  She was in town for the weekend staying with her sister.  She texted me back and said yes.  I met her at the Ram for a beer and a pretzel and cheese appetizer.  Since it was close to my birthday, she paid for the drinks and snack.  We chatted about a lot of things including the new developments about our friends, wedding stuff and the possibility of moving back into Rainier this summer. She told me about her work trips, the marathons and runs she was training for and some of the home improvement projects she and Chaise have been taking care of. I thanked her for the food and the visit and gave her an awkward hug just for fun. 

I stopped at the Walmart to get a few things, got gas at the Arco and went home.  I spent some of the evening cleaning the house a little bit and wrapped some presents. 

I got in a shower and then went to bed because I was tired from all the stuff we did that weekend. 

Sunday, November 26th

I set my alarm for about 9:30 but actually got up around 10 after lying in bed.  Mom called to see when I was coming out to get the truck.  I got ready to go, ate a quick breakfast, made Ben get out of bed, he got ready and ate a quick breakfast as well.  We drove out to Rainier and picked up the gold truck.  Of course, we had to pet Kirby and Chloe.  

We drove back into town, loaded up our garbage cans and headed to Hawks Prairie to the kingdom of dumps!  It wasn't super busy, so we were able to get in and out quickly.  Sinc we were on that side of town, we stopped at Costco for a few things, went home, unloaded the cans and we went inside to eat some lunch.  I had a leftover turkey sandwich and some chips while we watched some of the football games.  Shortly after, I went back out to Rainier to drop off the truck.  I stopped by the gas station in Rainier and put $20 worth of gas into the truck.   

I gave Dad the receipts, hung out for a few minutes and then went home because I had a bunch of chores to do.  Erika told us that Shane and Linda had their baby that afternoon, they named her Bailey.  Erika and Zac thought the name was dumb.  I got home, we finished the clothes, did the dishes, put stuff away, put the Thanksgiving decorations back in their totes, fixed up the small outside tree, made turkey soup, watched football and ate popcorn.  

Ben started his 100 stars before Christmas for Mario 64, it is a tradition that Ben and his dad did while growing up.  He's been keeping the tradition alive since his dad passed away in 2014.

I really didn't want to go work the next day due to the sheer amount of work we're going to have to do because Comagine didn't have Friday off.  Like I always say, four-day weekends go by way too fast!

Next Adventure:  Choosing our Christmas Tree, Rainier City Pizza and Burgers, RHS Craft Fair and Decorating the Tree

Birthday Party Weekend Extravaganza

Friday, November 17th

I originally wanted to have a birthday party the weekend before, during my actual birthday, but my Mom was in Ecuador and Nicole and Del were in Hawaii. So, we had to save it for the next weekend. I planned on having a family get together on Friday and let people know what time and what we were having.  I had everyone bring their own drinks.  The next day was our taco game night with friends since we've been putting it off for months. 

I spent most of my day working wishing I had the day off. It was a pretty average Friday for the most part. I got most of my stuff done and was able to do a few things that afternoon.  I had put up the shark decorations, I bought on Amazon, on the ceiling and walls.  I got a few things put away, vacuumed the house in sections as I got phone calls and since Doug was home on (LWOP), I had him clean his bathroom and the dog area in the dining room. Of course, I got grief from him.  It happened every time I asked him to help out.  It was getting super old.  His behavior was getting bad again and we all knew his time at the state was going to come to an end.  It was a matter of time.  

Ben had spent the prior week getting together a shark themed Jeopardy game and even had a prize for the winner. I thought he did a pretty good job for the first time putting one together. I had borrowed Erika and Zac's air fryer, so we had the extra one going when we started cooking food.  I made the shark cupcakes the night before, so they were ready to go due to the lack of time on Friday.  They were Funfetti with shark sprinkles. 

For many years, we had gone to Buffalo Wild Wings for my birthday but decided not to go this year because it gets harder and harder to bring 15 or more people to the restaurant each time.  Instead, Ben said, oh...we should make wings and fries here.  So, I bought the fries and some of the wings, Heather and Josh provided a bag or two of wings from Costco, which was really nice of them.  Little did we know, it would be a lot of work to cook all of the stuff at the same time without a large fryer and we should have started sooner too.  Oh well, we live, and we learn.

Josh and Heather got there before everyone else did and like I said earlier, we should have started cooking the wings earlier.  Everyone arrived by 6 p.m. but had to wait for the food to get done.  I had three air fryers going and two sheet pans full of fries cooking in the oven. I could tell everyone was getting bored and we tried reassuring them that it would be done soon. 

I was in the kitchen with Josh and Ben feverishly trying to get the food done so we could sit and eat it.  Once everything was finally done, we had everyone come in and get some food.  There was definitely plenty of it and everyone finished it off.  We had no leftovers which is a win because now we don't have to store it. We ate, chatted and enjoyed the food.  

Trish asked me why I wasn't wearing my shark costume, and I told her that it was so busy, that I had totally forgotten about it.  I went and grabbed it from the extra closet and put it on.

We cleared the plates and got ready for shark Jeopardy. Ben put a lot of work into it and made some of the questions really hard.  I don't think very many people got them right.  Haha.  We still had fun though. The shark cupcakes came out on the cupcake tree, people sang Happy Birthday, and I blew out the candles that sat on top of the pyramid of cupcakes that said 40.  I still couldn't believe I was 40.  Where does the time go?  Seriously?  

I got a few birthday presents, one being a cover for my Kitchen Aid, and thanked everyone for coming.  I knew people were getting tired and wanted to head home after a long day at work, especially Heather and Mom, who both get up at like 4:30 and Trish and company who live an hour away.  Everyone left and Ben and I spent some time cleaning up.  We left the tables and chairs up since we were hosting taco game night the next day.

Like always, we stayed up too late.

Saturday, November 18th

I had gotten the word out at the beginning of November, letting our friends know that Ben and I could host Friendsgiving/game night in mid-November. Everyone agreed that it would work for them and so, I took initiative to delegate items.  If I didn't something would be left out or brought twice. I let them know that Ben and I would be responsible for the turkey meat (it's Friendsgiving, can't forget the turkey), the seasoning, the tortillas, guacamole and sour cream.  I assigned Justin and Lindsay the shredded cheese, Megan would bring the tortilla chips and salsa, Celeste and Isaac were to bring the lettuce, cilantro and diced tomatoes and Nicole and Del the beans and rice.  Everyone seemed to be okay with it.

Also, Erika and Sonya put together a brunch of just us girls, which included them, Mom and me.  Sonya wanted to get to know us better over some food.  We all agreed and decided to meet up around 10:00 a.m. at Medicine Creek Cafe.  It was down in Nisqually.  Nobody except Sonya has been there before. I made sure to bring some notes with me just in case the items listed came up in conversation. 

I left the house around 9:45 and literally got there just as the clock hit 10.  I found a place to park and was like, wow, this place is busy.  I hope we get a spot.  I didn't realize people were already inside at a table.  I joined up.  We ordered drinks, I got a chocolate milk, and had some light conversation.  A little while later, our waitress came back and asked about food.  I ordered The Classic, which was two eggs, sausage, hash browns and toast.

I can't remember how it began but we started talking about Doug and Doug's history so Sonya could better understand the dynamics of our family and what we've had to do for him over the years. I wanted her to actually know what we've had to do to get him to where he was that day.  I got the brunt of it because he was living with me in my house. I honestly thought him having a girlfriend was too soon after starting therapy and the problems he's been having at work, but what do I know?  We talked about his past, his last relationship, his problems that he probably wasn't going to talk about with her.  I told her that Doug is someone you need to keep reminding and keeping him on task. Erika added some stuff, Mom talked about a couple things.  It seemed pleasant, but we will see what the next couple months will bring.

We stayed until about 1:00 that afternoon.  We paid for our food, and we all went our separate ways.  I had to hit up Walmart and Winco really quick so I could get the rest of the stuff for Friendsgiving game night.  Of course, it's never a quick trip.  I finally made it home around 3. I had Ben helped me unload the groceries and put them away.  I took down the shark decorations and put up some Thanksgiving ones. 

Megan got there early and helped me with some of the stuff.  She got her food she brought all fixed up and told me she bought some Thanksgiving tablecloths.  They were originally made for children to write and color on, but it was perfect for a game night with friends.  She helped me put them on the tables.  I made sure I got a few boxes of crayons so people could have fun with it.  I started the turkey burger and that didn't take long to cook.  I added my gluten free seasoning and mixed that up.  

Everyone else started to arrive and I grabbed Nicole's cans of beans and put them into a pan and started warming them. She threw her rice into the microwave and headed those up.  I got everything into bowls, made sure it got on the table and told everyone that the food was done. We all piled tacos and taco fixin's onto our plates.

The food was delicious. We ate, carried on, laughed, talked about random things, weddings, Del and Nicole's trip to Hawaii, the upcoming holidays, etc.  People had started to get the crayons out and were drawing on the tablecloth.  This is where Gina Gobbles, the stripping turkey, was born.  

Nicole and Del brought their bags of games, and we looked through them and found a couple to play.  One of those games was a group favorite, Telestrations, but this one was the "After Dark" version, which we haven't played that one yet, but the original one is always entertaining.  The drawings and guesses are so terrible, and some are memorable for years to come!

Everyone stayed until about 11:30/midnight, unlike the last game night at Celeste and Isaac's house in October. They grabbed the stuff they came with.  Lindsay handed me a birthday present and card before she, Wes and Justin went home.  I thanked her for the gift. I thanked everyone for coming and Ben and I took the tables and chairs down and cleaned up the kitchen.  

We went to bed shortly after. 

Sunday, November 19th

It was so nice to sleep in after how busy the weekend has been thus far.  A few months ago, while shopping at the Olympia Goodwill, I found a SPAM apron.  Yes, I bought it knowing that Josh's birthday was coming up.  it is the perfect gift for someone who grew up on Guam eating SPAM.  I even paired it with a couple cans of SPAM.  We were invited to come to his party at 1 p.m. in Tenino.  Heather planned a Barbie themed party.  I managed to find some Barbie plates and some pink table clothes. She had the idea of making a life-sized Barbie box but failed to find a box that was big enough.  Then she ran out of time and got lazy.  It gets to the best of us.

Ben and I got up, fed the cats, I had a small snack to tie me over until we went to the party, did a few things, got ready, made sure Josh's birthday card got filled out and we hopped into Ben's Edge.  We made our way to their house in rural Tenino.

We arrived a smidgen before 1 p.m. and went into Heather's parent's house.  I have not been inside the house, so Heather gave me a short tour and told me a couple stories.  They had quite the spread for six people.  Heather had gotten Costco sandwiches, chips and a blue and pink Barbie sheet cake and an array of drinks.  I saw she put a bunch of notecards on the wall for Barbie Jeopardy.  Ben and I still haven't watched the movie, so we were at a huge disadvantage.  

We ate, hung out, watched Heather's Dad feed his lap and the floor, the dogs probably loved that, chatted about the upcoming holidays, wedding planning and other random things when they came up. It's been a while since we had Costco sandwiches.  Heather's mom asked us to take a few sandwiches home with us.

I took a quick bathroom break because my stomach wasn't feeling very good.  It was probably all the stuff I had that weekend was coming to an end.  I was in there for a few minutes.  Heather was really excited to start the Barbie Jeopardy.  Even Heather's mom hasn't seen the movie so this should be interesting.  We all managed to get a few of the questions correct but, in the end, Josh won because he saw the movie.

Josh opened his cards and presents and then we all had some Barbie cake.  The themes for these parties are hilarious.  We are grown adults and most of our parties in the past five or, so years have been themed. At least we have fun with it.  

We thanked Heather, Josh and her parents for inviting us over.  We took home some sandwiches and headed out.  

We drove into Rainier to pick up a few things from my parents' house, we petted Chloe and Kirby and were there for about an hour. We drove back into Lacey and Ben decided he should get gas before we went home.  He didn't want to worry about it the next day.  We got home around 6 p.m., we had Doug feed the cats, we did a couple loads of laundry, hung out and got ready for the upcoming short work week.

Next Adventure:  The Long Four-Day Thanksgiving Weekend

My Birthday Weekend -- the Big 4-0!

Friday, November 10th

Who knew my birthday weekend was going to be this insane.  

The day before, I went to work and at lunch time I went to go let Murphy out, while on my way to her house, I noticed the Escape was being weird.  I got to her house, shut off the Escape and the cooling fan would not shut off.  I've been having a lot of trouble with the car - the battery, connection issues and now the cooling fan won't shut off.  I was on the phone with Dad when this happened.  I told him what was happening, and he said when I got home just to disconnect the car and he would come over after a while. I took care of Murphy and called Ben.  He kinda said the same thing and then I called Trish to let her know I was still having trouble with the car.  Ughhh!

I went back home, unhooked the car from the battery and let it sit until Dad came over to check it out. He called TK to ask his availability and he could check out the car on Saturday morning.  It sat in the driveway with the battery unhooked until then. 

That same day, while making dinner, Ben was on his way home from work, we chatted and my phone restarted itself, like it had been since September 2021.  I was convinced I got lucky and got the lemon phone when we upgraded back in June 2021.  I have never had a phone be that difficult before.  I just continued to put up with it. 

Well, my phone shut off and restarted itself, but this time, it was stuck in a perpetual restart mode, which I hadn't encountered before.  I tried shutting it off, letting it sit for a while before turning it back on.  Again, it was stuck in a zombie mode.  My stomach dropped because everything I had - contacts, photos, text messages, audio clips, everything was now gone.  I racked my brain to find out if I had moved most of that stuff to my computer or Facebook.  The contacts were not that important to me because I could get those back at any time, it was the photos, text messages and audio clips I was worried about.  

I got onto my computer and messaged Ben on Facebook.  I told him, my phone finally stopped working.  Of course, he said, well I told you to get a new one.  I didn't want to get a new one because they were expensive, and I had to wait for a good deal.  I probably should have taken the time to do that, but I didn't, and it was my own fault.  It is amazing how much we rely on our phones.

That Friday, we slept in, ate breakfast, got ready, Ben got his bowling ball ready, and we took his Edge (since the Escape needed to go to TK the next day) and headed to west side Olympia so I could drop him off at the bowling alley and I could go get my haircut with Celeste.  I had the usual haircut and we talked about wedding stuff, Erika, our friends and other random things.  I thanked her for the haircut.

I went back to the bowling alley and picked up Ben.  He was able to get through a few games to break in his new ball. We went to the mall to get a new phone. Luckily, it was a trade in, so my phone was free, but sadly, no one (not even the super nerds at the Livit Mobile store) could figure out how to get my stuff off of it.  They've never seen anything like it before.  They and the AT&T people said that I must have won the unlucky phone lottery when I upgraded in June 2021.

We had to factory reset it and I lost everything.  My contacts, text messages, phone numbers, photos and my audio files.  I was going to have to hunt stuff down. I am so glad that past Val, saved most of the photos and such through Facebook messenger and sending tons of stuff to other people.  We walked around the mall for a bit.  We went into Old Navy and bought some new jingle jammies since we haven't done that in a few years.  Ben bought some gas at Safeway on the way home, while I went inside to grab a few things to make ramen. 

We went home and spent the rest of the day enjoying our day off from work.  I spent some time getting my new phone up and going and made some ramen.  

We've been having Dad come over during the week so he could eat dinner with us since Mom was in Ecuador until Monday.  He ate ramen with us as we chatted about the upcoming holiday season.  He went home, Ben and I did a couple chores, hung out and went to bed late.

Saturday, November 11th

I got up around 8:30, got ready and headed into Rainier to meet up with Dad at TK. I got there just after 9, we disconnected the car from the battery, he took my keys into TK and explained what was happening.  He said it should be done by the afternoon and he would give us a call. Dad wanted breakfast so we went into Yelm and decided on Mr. Doug's.  I haven't been there in a while. We forgot it was Veteran's Day and wondered why the place was so busy.  We got seated right away, ordered our food and hung out.  Our food came, we ate, paid and went to Mom and Dad's house.

We walked down to Megan's house and meet up with Carl.  Megan had taken her kids to the arcade in Centralia.  Dad expressed interest in purchasing some eggs.  Carl let us in the house, we sat and chatted for a bit, we bought some eggs and walked back home.  I got comfortable sitting on the couch watching TV and fell asleep for a bit.  TK called us to let us know the car was ready to go.  Then we saw that the pellet stove auger was messed up.  Seriously?!  What else was going to break?

We got into Yelm, heard what was wrong with the Escape, some sort of temperature regulator (looks similar to a spark plug) and it cost me $250 for the part and the labor. 

TK told us that the part he had to fix was really difficult to get to.  I was so glad I had that extra dog money, handed Dad the cash and he went in and paid for it. I thanked Dad for helping me and drove back into town so I could do the weekly grocery shopping.

I went to Costco, Walmart, Winco and a Discount store next to where Shopko used to be.  I was able to talk to Mom for a little while and told her about the crazy stuff that's been happening since Thursday.  I headed home, unloaded and put the groceries away, made some homemade pizza, Doug and Sonya joined me after hanging out at the ER all day for a possible kidney stone incident for six hours.  

I watched football, blogged and talked to Ben while he was on shift.  I went to bed late once again. 

Sunday, November 12th

Sunday was a chill day. Ben got home from shift and hung out until I got up.  Doug mentioned that Sonya was coming over and she made us biscuits and gravy.  I am not a huge fan of biscuits and gravy, but I had some because she went out of her way to make them.  We ate them and watched the morning football game. 

We spent time doing laundry and the bedding, I worked on my blog, spent some time getting ideas for my elves since December wasn't too far away, I did the dishes, folded clothes, put together a menu for the upcoming Friday and Saturday, ate leftover chicken as a late lunch while we watched the Seahawks beat the Commanders 29-26 in the afternoon game.  Once the bedding and blankets were done, I had Ben help me make the bed since it is a two-person job.

I had some popcorn while we watched the SNF game, and we all complained on how our Fantasy Football teams were doing.  It always came down to how our players did on Monday night.  I was doing well in my division in both the leagues I was on.  All of our energy was focused on beating Kevin since he was a cheater over the past two years, and we did NOT want him to magically three-peat this year.

We finished up our chores, got cleaned up and went to bed.  I didn't have to get up the next day and go to work but Ben did.  He was super jealous.  I can't believe the next day I will actually turn 40.  

Monday, November 13th

At 3:23 a.m. I turned 40 years old.  It's an interesting milestone because you're not old but you're not young either. Luckily, I still look somewhat young and can pass for someone in their thirties still, plus I remain active as well. 

I didn't set my alarm.  I got up around 9:30, grabbed a shower, got ready to go and saw that it was actually going to be a nice day.  November 13ths are not usually nice but rainy and blustery most times. Last year was a nice day and I was happy to see it was nice again this year.  I could actually go out and do something outside.  I got my geocaching stuff together to go fix some caches later on.

I drove out to Rhonda's house to go let Murphy out and I got a text from Erika asking what I was doing today and to wish me a happy birthday.  I told her I really had no set plans and was wondering if I wanted to meet her somewhere for lunch.  She has a 4-day work week and has Fridays off but because Friday was a holiday, she also got Monday off.  I told her that would be fun and asked her if she had any ideas on where to go.  She said she hasn't had Panda Express in a while so that is where we went...to the one closest to her house on Martin Way.

We ate, hung out and shared some stories.  She was still pretty early in her first trimester of pregnancy, and she was telling me stuff about that.  

She said she had to go to the store afterwards and drove the short distance to Safeway and I joined her.  I needed to get a few things anyway.  She bought stuff for lasagna. Afterwards, we parted ways, I thanked her for lunch, and she went to the lab, and I went to drop off the recycle in Hawks Prairie. 

I drove to Yelm to pick up the three of the newest geocaches.  They were on the north side of the Yelm.  The first one, Live to Ride (GCAB9BB) was an easy one but the parking was weird.  I wasn't going to be there long, so I just found a place on the side of the road, got out, found it, got my name on it, got a quick picture and got back in the Escape.  Hardly anyone drove by.    

The next one was on the other side of the Aquatic Bath property near the new dog park that was being built on Rhoton Road.  I was hoping the cache wasn't going to be where the city workers were at with their large trucks.  I got closer and found out it wasn't.  I pulled into the driveway, made sure I parked off to the side (just in case the employees of that company needed to come and go while I was there) and found where the cache was.  Aquatic (GCAEDC4) was a fake electrical box.  All you had to do was flip the bottom latch and the cache revealed itself.  I signed my name, took a picture and put it back.  Off to the next one!

Ohjoy! A Geocache Anniversary (GCA7GRN) was in the shopping center by the Goodwill, Dollar Tree, Burger King and the newest addition, Harbor Freight.  I had to maneuver myself with the Escape so I could go out and get it without being noticed since it was in a lamp skirt.  I found a break in the shopping center traffic, grabbed it, took it back to the Escape, signed my name and then when there was another break, I went out to put it back.  

I went into the Dollar Tree to pick up a few things for the upcoming birthdays and Thanksgiving holiday. While I was in line, I found out that Doug lost his investigation and was on the brink of losing his job.  He was awful for the rest of the day.   

I fixed my cache The 507 Series: Yelm, Wash. (GC3AMVW) cache that seemed to have recent problems as of about a year ago.  It for some reason goes missing a lot and it never used to.  I ended up just putting a bison tube out and zip tied it to one of the Doug Fir branches.  Let's see how long it stays this time.  

I drove out to Roy to check on another one that went missing a lot as of late, The 507 Series: Roy, Wash. (GC3AMVP) kept going missing.  I was running out of fake rocks and had to spend $7 on a replacement.  I parked at the convenience store and walked over to the large rocks.  Yep, it was missing. I replaced it with my expensive fake rock and hope it stayed for a while.

I got back onto 507 and drove back to McKenna.  I had to move The 507 Series: McKenna, Wash. (GC8MCGV) because the people who now own the property did not want it there. I saw that I could move it to the park next door, and it was under the parameters to be able to move it.  I found a spot along the fence line that I could hide a hide-a-key.  I took some new coords and walked back to the Escape. 

I took the back way to Vail to go see Bob and Bev for a little bit. They showed me the puzzle they've been working on; they gave me a card, we chatted for about an hour about random things and Bob gave me some chips to bring home with me.  He had a friend that works for Frito Lays and gives them to him.  Ben was on his way home and decided on Meconis for my birthday dinner.  We ate, watched Monday Night Football, I worked on my blog, fixed my caches and logged the three I found.  I received a plethora of Facebook posts, messages, a couple phone calls and text messages.  I miss my birthday song from Grammie.

Mom arrived back to the states earlier that evening and had a long layover in Miami.  They arrived at SeaTac just before midnight but didn't make it back to Deleny's house until after 2 a.m.  Since Doug didn't have to go to work the next day, he picked up Mom from her house and took her to Rainier and dropped her off.  He didn't do a very good job coming home at like 3 in the morning and not waking people up.  Oh well.

Happy Birthday to me!

Next Adventure:  Birthday Party Weekend Extravaganza