Trish's Birthday Weekend in Bonney Lake

Friday, November 20

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday, November 21

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday, November 22 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next Adventure:  Welcome Home Wade and Oliver!

A Friday the 13th Covid Birthday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next Adventure:  Trish's Birthday Weekend in Bonney Lake

Geocaching and Chores on Veteran's Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next Adventure:  A Friday the 13th Covid Birthday