Yes, it's well past midnight -- but you guys already know how it goes! Hahaha. I needed to blog for the LAST day of 2015, so here goes...

This was a super-quiet day again. We did take a short drive down to Sauvie Island. And later we got food (take out) from the Burrito House (using one of our Christmas present gift certificates from Jeff). Then we picked up a few things from the store.

We wanted hominy. We needed kitty litter (for both home and the beach) and cat food. And I wanted to get FIREWOOD! We've really been enjoying these fires we've been having. So we got more decorative logs, a bundle of real wood and some fire starters.

And a bag of ice so we could make some 'festive' drinks later.

I really didn't feel all that great today. But I guess I'm lucky I'm not as sick as our friends Arthur and William have been! Arthur texted us today and they've both been ill, but especially Arthur, poor guy. They've been lying around and taking it easy (sound familiar?). It's not surprising that people here would go down sick. First we had the NEVER ENDING RAIN going on, and now it's bitterly cold. And it is the time of year when people get sick.

I was reading about this day LAST year, and frankly I'm just glad we're not as sick as we both were in 2014! Plus I got cold during our day trip to the beach (to see Arthur and William and their dogs, by the way!), then had a terrible flare-up and had to dash to the doctor! I'd forgotten that, but as Marilyn and I chatted about it, it all came back.

I just have a hard time NOT getting some flare-up when the weather is cold like this. Plus it's seasonal, somehow... Oh well. We struggle with health issues, but we hang in there pretty damn well, all things considered! But I have to say it has been lovely resting and relaxing during our vacation. That's for sure!!!

When we went out today we both wore gloves and scarves. And Marilyn had on her faux fur hat and I had on my earmuffs. We weren't taking any chances of getting chilled.

I think June needs to try and stay warm, too. I know how hard it can be on your joints when they get cold. And I worry about that knee of hers...

Talked VERY briefly with sister Sue. She was arranging the pot luck for her cribbage club and the people who manage the park had closed the office early -- without letting her know so she could get a key to the building they use! So she was understandably upset. But she never phoned us back, so I have no clue what happened. And she didn't call at (or near) midnight, either. Hopefully things worked out and she and everyone else had a good time.

Friends Mark and Adeena were texting back and forth with us. And, as I mentioned before, Arthur texted to let us know what was up and to wish us a Happy New Year. So it wasn't as if we didn't have others wishing us greetings, believe me.

Oh! And Jeff sent us a text, too. Very sweet of him. And June had called earlier in the day to check up on us, too -- which we both thought was very sweet. She wasn't planning to stay up, so we didn't call her at midnight.

We got out our 'New Year's Eve' box -- I shared photos back in 2010 in THIS ENTRY. Yes, I fetched 'Baby Bell' and 'White Christmas Bell,' too (Marilyn and I have had those since we were kids and they're very special to us -- we ALWAYS ring them on New Year's Eve).

I started a fire, then just before midnight we opened up the back door (the door leading to the back yard in the living room), to let 2015 depart. Yes, that's another tradition! (smile)

We put on 'Happy New Year' necklaces and party hats (those are all hats that have been around for years and years). Then we took our bells and some other noisemakers and listened to the countdown before heading out on the front porch.

At one point I went back in to get a horn to blow. I had my bell in one hand and a spinner in the other and I was holding the horn with my lips and laughing so hard I was almost choking! Both of us started to laugh and laugh as we snapped pictures to post at Instagram. Hahaha.

We did each have some eggnog to drink. And enjoyed our Mexican food, too. It was lovely, all in all. We're actually more used to spending New Year's Eve just the two of us (and the cats, Colin and Henry), than going anywhere else. So that's fine by us. But talking to friends at midnight has been a tradition. Texting is fine, of course! (And doesn't risk waking those who don't want to be awakened.)

Our plan is to drive down to the beach house tomorrow.

Marilyn and I did discuss it, and we were glad we'd spent Christmas and New Year's Eve here at the Portland house this year. It's so nicely decorated that we've enjoyed it a great deal.

My only regrets? Not getting 'Christmas' (our gifts) to the mailman, our friend and neighbor Gladys and to both my hair salon and dentist's office. Oh well. Late again! Hahaha. It's certainly NOT the first time. Oh!!! And I didn't get anything to Hector, either. (sigh) Well, I will! No worries...

Before I forget...

Every year I like to focus on how fortunate I am to have my wonderful LiveJournal Friends! Thank you all for continuing to make my world a happier place to be, everyone! You mean so much to me.

As we say 'goodbye' to 2015, I want to wish all of you good things in 2016!!! (I hope it's a wonderful year.)

By the way, all good wishes from Marilyn, too!

Both Marilyn and I are just 'under the weather' -- not terribly sick or anything. But not feeling all that great, either. The nice thing? We can just REST as much as we want to. This was another day when neither one of us got out of our jammies all day long! Oh well.

I did run over to June's house (yes, in my jammies) to take her a tin of cookies -- and PooPurr's Christmas sock. It was so cute watching her play with her toys!!! (Don't worry, I had a coat over my clothes. So I didn't 'scare the neighbors' too bad! Hahaha.

What did we do today? Damn good question! What DID we do?

I remember sleeping in (yet again). I remember reading out loud from the current cat book. Then I got sleepy and went to lie down.

We DID 'catch up' with a huge pile of "Jeopardy" episodes -- we were miles behind! We're not entirely caught up, yet, but we watched a lot of them.

Marilyn decided we weren't leaving for the beach today (obviously -- or I'd be writing this from the beach house right now). In fact, she said we'd go down on New Year's Day at this point. Which is fine by me. (In other words, we're not leaving tomorrow, either.)

We've watched a little bit of "The Walking Dead" Marathon, but not all that much.

Can't think what I might be forgetting, so I guess that's it for today.

Marilyn and I just got home from going to the show -- so it's actually past midnight. Just so you know! (It's actually past 1:00 a.m. right now.)

As for today, this was yet another quiet day of sleeping late and lying around.

However, I did take the time to research the things I needed to know in order to help my friend and neighbor June. She got the new AMAZING new iPhone recently -- and when they set it up at the Verizon store, she didn't have the password with her. So the phone was set up with a different password than her iPad. That doesn't make sense, as you want your devices to be on the SAME ACCOUNT (for both the App store and and iTunes store), so you can share downloads. (No, that doesn't always work, but it frequently will.)

And her husband Jim got her the Fitbit ONE for Christmas -- and it needed to be set up. This is NOT the same one that Marilyn and I have (or that Adeena, Jeff, Rich and Arthur have) -- so I was concerned that it might be different setting it up.

Anyway, I did some research, then I phoned there. I spoke to Jim, and he was taking June to see the doctor at that point. Both Marilyn and I were GLAD, because we're very worried about the swelling in her legs and feet. We were seeing it as a possible sign of heart failure (we've been around that quite a bit). But this appears to be directly tied to June's issues with her kidneys. Anyway, she was worked in and saw a doctor who ran some tests. She's supposed to find out results soon.

He also gave her a steroid shot for the pain she's been having in her knee. (Been there.) Hopefully that will help her. It's hard to move around when you're in a ton of pain!

When June got home I went over there and we managed to take care of both things -- the password/account and setting up her Fitbit.

That Fitbit ONE seems pretty cool, really. It doesn't need to have batteries put in, as it has a rechargeable battery (you use a cable to connect it to a USB port). Also, it seemed to charge pretty quickly. One of the reasons June and Jim hadn't had any luck setting it up was that it was dead and needed charging.

I downloaded the App on her iPhone, then after charging it part way, we went through all the steps to get it working. It has some settings I'm not familiar with (it's fancier than mine!), but I think we did okay. She can certainly use it any time now. (She already has it on a chain to wear around her neck.)

June's other issue was on her computer. She wanted me to see the popup -- which was iTunes wanted to 'update.' Hell, iTunes ALWAYS seems to want to update!!! So annoying. Considering I don't see her actually using iTunes, there's really no reason for her to bother updating. Anyway, I want her to leave that to either Donn or me, just to be safe...

Speaking of Donn, he's in China now. He won't be back until the end of January. I'm already missing him.

Marilyn invited sister Sue to go to the show with us, but she said she wasn't feeling well. (We get it, as we haven't been feeling that great, either.) We were going to see "The Danish Girl," with Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander (and tonight was Tuesday night, which is the cheap night).

The movie was AMAZING. Beautifully filmed, it transported viewers into the time period. It appears to be controversial, dealing with the subject of sex reassignment surgery. It's the story of Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener (who are historical figures), but it's based on a fictional novelization of their lives (a best seller from 2000).

Marilyn and I both LOVED it -- and were really moved by the story and the way it was filmed. We highly recommend it. It's getting mixed reviews, which shows us that you just can't go by reviews much of the time. I wouldn't be surprised if both the leads were nominated for acting awards for this one.

We're planning to go to the office in the morning, as we didn't end up going there tonight. Or maybe Marilyn will go in and I'll stay home and get things ready for our trip to the beach.

We're either leaving tomorrow for the beach house, or going early on Thursday.

It was REALLY, REALLY COLD while we were out going to the show tonight! The car temperature read 31' at one point -- and we could see ice glittering on the streets! (We also felt an icy spot, but luckily got home okay.) The weather at the beach is warmer, thankfully.

I need to get our recycling ready and out (June and Jim are going to make sure it gets down on the curb), and gather some garbage. I should do laundry! I've fallen behind while GOOFING OFF during our vacation.

Happily I found a clean tee to wear to bed (over-sized tee shirts are my jammie tops) and clean shorts (which I wear as jammie bottoms). But I have a few that need washing... (Including both my long pants, which are nice when it's this COLD at night!)

Speaking of cold, the house dropped down to 62' last night -- that's the coldest it's been in the house this winter to date.

I could also stand to do a load of dishes and clean up the kitchen (again).

Anyway, time for bed!

This was another VERY LAZY day for Marilyn and me. We never got out of our jammies all day long -- and we pretty much laid around most of the day. Yesterday I cooked a meal, but NOT today!

Marilyn made cinnamon rolls, though! Pillsbury ones, out of the can. We hadn't had those decades, I swear! It made me remember the old: Nothing says lovin' like something from the oven. (Anyone else old enough for THAT?) And Marilyn looked up the Pillsbury Doughboy, who turned 50 (!!!) this year (on November 7). I love him! And I really enjoyed the cinnamon rolls. I think they're a nice change from something like Cinnabon -- to tell you the truth, I find Cinnabon rolls just too sweet.

As for any other cooking, all we ate were a couple of chicken pot pies (which can be thrown in the microwave, thankfully!). I wasn't much up to cooking today...

I SLEPT a ton again today. And we BOTH slept in. Marilyn was talking about how TIRED she's been, and I think it's little wonder. It was a very busy year. And we were running around like MAD for much of this month! It's nice to just lie around and then to nap whenever we feel like it...

Yesterday I bought two of Lilian Jackson Braun's 'The Cat Who' books for Kindle. I originally listened to them as books on tape way back when I worked for Hoffman Construction, downtown. At the time I was so close to the Main Library that I often walked there on my lunch hour. And because of the nature of that job, I could actually listen to books on tape during work hours. You can read about the series HERE -- and I highly recommend it to mystery lovers -- AND cat lovers! These books feature Jim Qwilleran and his Siamese cats, Koko and Yum-Yum, who are involved in a mystery in each of the novels.

Here's something really interesting about the series of books: The first three books were written in 1966, 1967 and 1968! Then she didn't write another one for 18 years!!! I came upon them in either the late 1980's or early 1990's (I can't remember which), on tape (as I already mentioned). Marilyn and I took a road trip around that time, and we took one of the tapes along with us -- so that's how Marilyn was first introduced to the series.

After that, we bought a bunch of the books in paperback. I recently started re-reading these. I sometimes call paperbacks 'bathtub books,' because I'll take one in the tub with me when I want to soak and read. I don't DARE take the Kindle in the tub (I'm not an idiot and don't want to risk dropping it!), so the old-fashioned printed book is best for these situations. The amusing thing, of course, is that once I start reading a 'bathtub book,' I get interested -- so I'll just keep reading it until I've finished it. (It's pretty rare that I can STOP myself from continuing to read and save the book for the next long soak. Hahaha.)

Anyway, one of the books I bought was "The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern." It's the second book of the series, so it was originally written in 1967. This is the book that introduced Yum-Yum -- the first book was just Qwilleran and Koko. This was the first of the books Marilyn read, as it was the one we listened to on our road trip (mentioned above).

Interesting notes: There's mentions of Orientals in the book -- which is no longer okay, but was common back in the 1960's. There are a lot of things like that, actually! The descriptions of things fit that time period now and then, such as one woman wearing a very short skirt (mini-skirts were the rage in the 60's). Now that we KNOW when it was written, we're paying attention to these details. But for the most part it holds up fine.

We own a number of the books -- but several have 'gone missing' over the years (as books sometimes do). There are quite a few that we've never read, so I'm hoping to eventually get them all for the Kindle. They seem to run around $7.99, which is really a good price for a best selling author. (I have another series I like where each book runs around ten dollars, or more. Obviously it depends on how popular the books are and how well known the author is.)

I never actually SAID that I'm reading "The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern" out loud, but that's what I'm doing! We love to have sessions where I read some book out loud. I love doing it, and think I'm a pretty decent reader. We've done this for years and years. It's a sort of nice way to share the reading experience.

Reading out loud used to be a very common practice. I suppose partly because many people weren't able to read years ago (or didn't read that well). It was considered a form of entertainment, but also a way to comfort those who were sick or elderly -- aside from reading to children, of course.

Mom and Dad used to read to us when we were little and I remember loving it! Dad was especially fond of reading things to us. He read from "Reader's Digest" quite a bit, which makes me smile.

Marilyn always read "The Hundred and One Dalmatians" out loud to Mom and me every Christmas. She'd start before Christmas and spread it out, ending on Christmas Day. (The story is set just before and on Christmas, for those who might not know.) And when we were in high school she read "Gone With the Wind" out loud to me and her then boyfriend, Tom.

I don't know if most people still read out loud. If not, that's too bad. At least people can purchase audio books in a number of formats if they want to have the same experience. But I love being the one doing the reading, personally!!!

It might snow again tomorrow. Anyway, we're planning to head to the beach on Wednesday...

I need to color my hair. Maybe I can get myself to do that tomorrow. Maybe. Hahaha.

Time to go read out loud a bit more before bed!

Quick entry -- I've been fighting a small cold (hopefully it will stay small), and just haven't felt terrific the past two days. That's just FINE, by the way. I have nothing I need to do, so I can just stay in my jammies and cuddle with my nice throw and watch TV or read my paperback book (shocking to not be reading my Kindle right now, isn't it?), while drinking a hot mug of sweet tea.

There's really NOTHING much to report, aside from the fact that we got a dusting of snow today. There's still snow on the grass and it's cold. But we didn't get that much. Still, it was lovely while it was falling.

No fire today. I was too lazy to make one. Plus I'm down to the last decorative fireplace log.

I did bother to fix what was supposed to be our Christmas dinner, though! We had that wonderful Kentucky Legend ham, fried up. With Suddenly Salad and deviled eggs, served with tea. Very nice!

That's the first real meal we've had since the Chinese food on Christmas Eve. Other than that we've just snacked on things, but haven't cooked.

It's been nice to just STAY HOME and basically STAY DOWN for a couple of days. But I did force myself to put out some chow for the critters. And fresh nectar for the hummingbirds. Still haven't caught the mailman to give him his Christmas. Still need to go down to Glady's house. And have stuff for Kris and my dentist (and her assistants). And should drop some cookies at my hair salon. I did put out the cans for the neighbor who takes them (and some wine for Christmas).

As Marilyn pointed out, it was good we decided to wait to go to the beach -- because we couldn't get there right now, anyway, because of the snow in the mountains!

Say! Are any of you CSI Las Vegas fans? Marilyn and I had never seen the series finale back in September, so we watched the repeat tonight. Very enjoyable! Especially that they FINALLY got Gil and Sara together for the end. Marilyn and I found it amusing that these two 'sailed away' on his boat -- which was the ending for Revenge, too (Amanda and Jack sailing away). I was far happier with the end of CSI than Revenge, probably needless to say.

Sitting here sniffing. I think I'll go curl back up under my throw!

First off, for all my friends who celebrate:

And Happy Holidays to everyone, whatever you believe in and celebrate during this special time of year.

(Yes, I know many of you don't celebrate Christmas -- so I hope all my talk about it isn't too off-putting. I certainly do not mean to offend. To each his own, of course!)

Marilyn and I slept in this morning, which was LOVELY. We were both worn out by the past several days, to be entirely honest!

Then we 'did Christmas' -- going up and opening some gifts under the tree. And having the boys (our cats Colin and Henry) open their cat socks! Colin had been patiently waiting under the tree, lying between the two socks. And they were both very engaged and excited and played and played with the items inside the socks. It was so sweet!

Then we finally pulled ourselves together to go for a ride. Marilyn had decided some time back that we would go hunting for SNOW on Christmas Day. So that's what we did! We started by getting Starbucks at Nicole's store (she was working there today). Then we drove up the Gorge.

By the way, I wouldn't have believed the TONS AND TONS of people who were at Multnomah Falls on Christmas! Seriously? The parking lot was full and the old highway was PACKED with cars! Good grief.

There was no sign of snow anywhere close by, but we did find it! Thankfully the roads were entirely clear of snow (perfectly safe to drive) -- but there was snow all around us at one point. And we did stop and take photos of us in the snow.

Then we turned around and headed back. We stopped at a gas station market to get snacks (and tipped the sweet young woman working there) -- and Marilyn let me stop to pee at another Starbucks. We managed to get home before dark (a good thing).

We had some snacks when we got back (we had TONS of food around here) and watched some TV.

I was falling asleep sitting up (yes, again), so I eventually went to lie down. To be perfectly honest, I was feeling a bit off today. Marilyn has been struggling with not feeling that well recently, too. Little wonder with her recent oral surgery and the medications (including antibiotics, which can make you so damn miserable!). I'm not sure what my own issue was, but I've sort of been fighting a cold. And I just felt weary today and not quite normal (whatever that is).

We only spoke briefly to sister Sue late in the day. And Mark texted us to send us Christmas greetings. But today wasn't really a social day. Considering we've been very social this season, that was okay, I think.

Marilyn was just saying she had asthma today from the fire. I built another one when we got home from our drive. We've been having wood fires in the fireplace for days now, and the smoke bothers both of us -- which is one of the reasons we don't have them.

You know, when we bought this house (more than 20 years ago), one of our requirements was that the new house have a fireplace (our old one did). We were pretty delighted to get a house with TWO fireplaces (in the living room AND family room). And we used to use them frequently in the winter. But even when you use those decorative logs, you still get smoke. And when you have issues with allergies and asthma, fires aren't always such a great idea...

But in spite of that, we've both enjoyed them this Christmas! And they've looked fabulous! So cheerful and warm and pretty.

I was just rereading my blog for last year and discovered I stayed up ALL NIGHT LONG on Christmas Eve! That's not a huge surprise, considering Marilyn and I love staying up late when we're on vacation. But we've actually made an effort to get more sleep in 2015. And while it might not seem like a lot to most people, it's quite a difference for us, I think.

Well, garbage and recycling shifts for Christmas. So normally I'd be doing it Thursday night, but this week I do it tonight (Friday night). So I need to go finish up. I took out a bunch of food for our critters (I still need to refill the hummingbird feeder). And I've got the recycling gathered and out.

I need to put out more composting -- including Sue's leftover food from dinner last night. I found room for it in the fridge, but I don't really believe she'd want to eat it tomorrow, so I'm going to toss it tonight.

I have TONS OF GARBAGE in the house right now! So it should be some job to gather it all and get it outside. And it's REALLY COLD out today -- and colder tonight. (It's supposed to go to freezing or below tonight.) So I suppose I'd better get to it!

Again, whatever you celebrate, I hope you enjoyed today and will enjoy this weekend.

We're undecided about WHEN we're heading down to the beach house. We can't decide whether we want to be here for New Year's Eve or there. I'm fine with either way. I'd like to get together with Arthur and William HERE, but if that doesn't work out, it's okay.

I feel like I'm forgetting something. But it won't come to mind, so I guess I'll stop worrying about it. Hahaha.

Sleep well -- and have WONDERFUL dreams!

Busy, busy day!

I woke up with terrible leg cramps again today. So bad I was almost screaming in pain at one point. (sigh) I use homeopathic medication to help and just have to walk and stretch it out (which I did).

I finally made us something to eat so that we ate around noon. We called it brunch, but it was easily lunch. We had bacon, hominy and green beans, with strong, hot tea.

I fell asleep sitting up in my chair upstairs in the living room. A knock and then the doorbell awakened me. It was Donn dropping by with presents for both Marilyn and me (wonderful boxes he made -- we love them).

Just after that, two neighbors came by with their gifts for us, Doug and then Barbara (and Doug brought over Rose and Ian's gifts).

I was quite out of it while Donn was here -- I had been deeply asleep! And still a bit confused when both Doug and then Barbara were there. (Doug and Janet live directly across the street, and Barbara, John and Jesse live across the street from June and Jim.)

So Marilyn and I needed to start getting our neighbor gifts ready for me to take out. Marilyn did MOST of the work this year!!! She had the gift bags and the contents and the nice tissue paper we'd bought -- and she put together each bag for each neighbor. I signed all the Christmas cards and gathered anything that we didn't have right in front of us.

This year we gave each neighbor a bottle of wine, a tin of cookies and a jar of candied jalapenos (plus some candy canes and jelly beans).

Marilyn had me start with Barbara across the street (not to be confused with Barbara and John). That visit took well over an hour, so Marilyn had to actually come after me to take me home.

We had set up earlier in the day to go to dinner with sister Sue and our neighbors and friends June and Jim -- for around 6:30 p.m. Every year we go out for Chinese food (or in the past we used to go get take out and bring it home to eat). That was our mother's tradition all our life.

Marilyn also figured out the gifts for our family members and friends, aside from our neighbors. She's done SO MUCH WORK for Christmas this year!!! (And has been so generous with her spending...)

After going to Barbara's (we were sad to hear she lost her beloved sister this past November), I then went to Doug and Janet's (they were gone), and Rose and Ian's -- where I got to visit with Rose and her brother. Poor Rose was in a terrible car accident (her car was totaled), but is thankfully okay! She had a bunch of Star Wars stuff around, so we talked about the movie. (smile)

Estelle came over to our house (everyone was napping at her house), and Marilyn and I visited with her. Then Marilyn dashed out to the liquor store. I took stuff to Barbara and John's house, but left it on the porch (they were gathered around the table and singing loudly in praise, so I didn't want to interrupt them by knocking).

I tried taking stuff over to Chuck and Linda's house, but the place was dark. So I left their stuff at June's house. I'd called to talk to June and she'd told me they might not be home and I could give the things to her.

June also told me that Jim couldn't go to dinner because he had an event at church tonight. I told her to tell Jim to join us if he could. And to come over as soon as she was ready.

Sister Sue was at the house waiting for us to get back there...

We four visited for a bit, then headed out to dinner. We really enjoyed our festive and friendly meal!!! Our server was very sweet with us. (Marilyn gave her a large tip. She always does that on holidays. We feel it's the right thing, as these people give up being at home with their family and/or friends in order to give us a pleasant experience.)

Then we came back home and visited more. Jim finally joined us, and I fixed him some snacks to eat (salmon and summer sausage, olives and crackers and dips). The poor guy hadn't had anything for dinner! (June had thought maybe the church would have food for him, but no go.)

We just had a delightful night! People stayed until 11:00, which was great by both of us! We talked and laughed. What a perfect time.

Actually, it was an excellent day! Marilyn wasn't able to get what she wanted at the liquor store (they were sold out), but that was okay.

Now we're watching Christmas mass at the Vatican on TV.

I hope all my friends are enjoying this day and will have a lovely Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate). Thank you ALL for your kindnesses this past year -- and for your friendship and support.

Marilyn and I are very happy. This has been an AMAZING year!!!

Only ONE MORE SLEEP until Christmas Day.

It's shocking to me that I didn't BLOG yesterday! (sigh) I guess it's because we were at Walmart when midnight rolled around...

CUTE MOMENT: Henry and Colin both came in the office with Marilyn and me just a bit ago. I was checking something online and messing with my email. And Marilyn was playing Zuma (which I also started doing). They were here to be with us -- but they often come in here to be with me WHILE I BLOG. Isn't that cute? It's part of their daily pattern, in other words. And right now when I am in here to blog, Henry has come BACK -- he's in 'his' chair in the corner of the room (directly behind me), where he's been grooming. Now he's settling down to nap, I think... I love it that Henry often is here for blogging.

Yeah, that was a total aside, but I just had to share!

TUESDAY (December 22):
Marilyn and I returned to Costco -- but the trip was a bust. They had sold out of what we wanted to purchase. And there were so many people behaving rudely that you couldn't get near samples. (Groups going from sample to sample and taking more than one item!) There were a lot of people the last two times we were here, too -- but everybody was polite with each other. Not so yesterday.

I finally 'finished' the Christmas tree yesterday. It was already really nice, but I had some ornaments that had been sitting around waiting to be added. So I just worked on it until I'd added the rest -- with Marilyn's help, of course. (No! It is not true that I did the tree alone! Marilyn helped with it a lot.) We both think this is our prettiest tree ever! We're very, very happy with it.

We were listening to iHeartRADIO yesterday -- I had put the App on both my iPads (the new and one of the old ones that I've still been using). We 'found' KING radio in Seattle that has classical Christmas music. So we listened to it a lot!

Around 11:00 p.m. (or so) we finally headed to Walmart. We needed to get cases of water, more Christmas presents and some other items. It was SHOCKING to walk down aisles and see them almost empty of items! We normally don't do shopping right before Christmas, so we hardly know what to expect, really.

We did get our favorite ham for Christmas! (Kentucky Legend is the brand.) That is such good ham!

We'd got the very LAST cat Christmas socks in the store -- which was only THREE. Isn't that SAD??? We normally buy quite a few, so we can give them to all of our close friends who have cats. We always get one for each of our cats (Colin and Henry). And we usually get socks for Sue, Candy and Nicole's cats -- but not this year. And we like to get a sock for June and Jim's cat and for Shari's cat. I think with only one extra sock that we'll probably give the sock to PooPurr. But it makes me feel BAD for all the other kitties... And they didn't have ANY individual Christmas-type toys you could buy (which they've had in past years).

We already picked up a couple of small toys and some catnip in a jar at one of the bazaars we went to, so we have a few things for our boys. When we got home and were bringing everything in, Colin went right over to the bag with the socks! I had to grab them, cover them up and take them into my bedroom to hide them! Their Christmas presents are a very big deal for our cats...

I'm trying to remember WHY it took us so long to get to bed after that. I was starting to pick up the living room and kitchen, knowing that Angel would be dropping by at 10:00 Wednesday morning to see us. We didn't get in bed until 4:00 (!!!). And I didn't sleep all that well. Oh well.

Wednesday (December 23):



Marilyn and I both send out special greetings to our dear friend Shari, who turned 58 today (she's still a baby... smile...).

We got up around 8:30 this morning so we could get ready to have Angel come by. I finished picking up upstairs, while Marilyn vacuumed downstairs (!!!) -- which really needed it. Then she used the dust mop upstairs. And we both dashed around getting ourselves ready, too.

Angel arrived promptly (he's always an early person -- so he was actually outside waiting in the car until 10:00). He brought us a gift bottle of Coquito, which he makes himself! It's a Puerto Rican coconut milk-rum Christmas drink that he kindly gives us each year. Very yummy! Marilyn gave him our card and present (movie tickets). Then we visited for a couple of hours (he left around noon). We had strong tea and cookies and he played a wonderful Christmas story from the radio that made us both cry. He's a very dear friend.

While he was there, sister Sue called about us both riding along with her to pick up Abby (her granddaughter), who was coming to spend the day and stay overnight. The second Angel left I phoned her and she drove over to get us. But Marilyn had a stomachache, so I went with Sue and she stayed home. But she suggested I bring both Sue and Abby back to see our tree and house.

Sue and I chatted while driving to get Abby. Then Candy called us and we found out Tammy was upset that Sue was late! Sort of MY FAULT, plus the bad traffic we encountered.

We got there in time (Tammy had been planning to leave) to get Abby. She had on her darling Hello, Kitty dress and new black high heels (honest!). She looked so sweet! Then Sue needed to pick Nicole up from work at Starbucks, so we went to get her. Finally we went back to my house.

Nicole was tired from work (she's put in a lot of hours recently), but she did go down to the family room to see Colin. He just loves her to pieces -- and she's always been mad for him (since she was a little girl). Surprising moment: Colin went to Abby and let her pet him!!!

Immediately after they left, Marilyn and I headed over to her surgery follow-up (we were due at 3:00). The cool thing? We now know exactly where to go to park! And they took her right away. I was sitting fooling around with my phone and I guess I fell asleep sitting up! (I didn't go to bed until 4:00. Then didn't sleep that well. And was up by 8:30. Just sayin'...) Anyway, Marilyn was done quickly, then we left and headed to do more shopping...

She got a good report. He said everything looked fine. And he doesn't need to see her for another four months.

We headed to Riteaid to get gifts of cookies for the neighbors. We'll combine this with some other things, depending on the neighbor. We have special gifts for June and Jim. And wine for some of the people. Plus we're giving a lot of people those special jars of candied jalapenos we have for this year (the ones that Marilyn loves so much and we drove so far to buy!).

Then we went to the Dollar Tree to get bags to put these gifts into. They have a nice variety of all sizes -- and they're very pretty, too! And the price is certainly good.

Finally, we went to Safeway. We wanted some snacks for the evening (chips and dips and summer sausage to slice). I can't recall what all we ended up getting.

We got home and I started a fire. Then we finally phoned our dear friend Shari to talk to her on her birthday -- and offer her greetings on her special day. We both got to talk to her, which was very nice!

Soon Jeff arrived to see us. He had presents for each of us: Gift certificates for the Burrito House. (Very cute! They so rarely do these that they don't really know how to write them up! Hahaha.) And he also gave us both alcohol, too. (smile) We'd already given him his gift, which was a Fitbit. We had already agreed that the three of us would start hiking together in 2016, and we wanted him to start using a Fitbit, like we do. We even talked about some places we want to go and hike.

We had drinks and the chips and salsa and dips, plus some cookies. And a lovely visit. He might come down while we're at the beach after Christmas (we hope so).

I forgot to mention that we bought a NEW tree topper today. We didn't like our old one, so we got a really lovely angel!

Also, I forgot to take Angel downstairs to see our family room, but I did drag Jeff down there. He said very nice things about the house (and was enthusiastic about the family room).

We did talk work a little bit. Jeff got news today that Marilyn and I had been waiting to hear about, and it turned out bad, I'm afraid. And we discussed Sheila and IT matters and so on and made some plans... We had a nice visit and laughed a lot and generally enjoyed each others' company.

Anyway, that was our VERY BUSY (and very long) day!

I'm really TIRED now. Marilyn said we can 'sleep in' tomorrow, which would be nice!

Tomorrow I need to 'do the neighbors' (prepare our Christmas gifts, sign the cards and take stuff to each house) -- and this can take some time to finish up. Anyway, it would be good to sleep decently tonight! (grin)

They were playing "Miracle of the Bells" on TV tonight. The movie is based on a book that both Marilyn and I loved reading when we were young. The book was written by Russell Janney (April 14, 1884-July 14, 1963) who was both a theatrical producer and author. This was his first novel (written in 1946), which was a best seller. They made the movie in 1948, which featured Fred MacMurray, Alida Valli and Frank Sinatra (playing the role of the priest). We only got to see a small part of the film today, but we'd loved to watch it sometime again...

I highly recommend BOTH the book and the movie, by the way. Very inspirational stuff!

Oh! We got chicken pot pies at the Dollar Tree and had those for dinner (just before Jeff arrived). They were as delicious as I remembered them being from when we were kids, by the way! (grin) I think we'll get those again soon.

Good night, dear friends. Sleep very well. Happy Christmas Eve!!!!!!!!!

This is an annual tradition, for Marilyn and I to go to Micki and Vern's house for dinner during the Christmas season. This happens when Shannon is home for the holidays, so we can see her, as well.

Micki used to be a festival director -- and has been our friend for decades. Shannon was an intern and then a seasonal assistant (over two years) for the festival. And that's when we met her mother, Julie (Micki's daughter). Confused yet? (smile)

Micki was originally married to Mel (both were friends). Years back I was a computer consultant for Mel, before his death. Anyway, Micki and Vern are now married. Interestingly enough, Vern is a Royal Rosarian. It's all very 'incestuous.' Hahaha. (The Royal Rosarians are very tied to the festival.)

We were really stuck in traffic for the first half an hour or so -- then things cleared out and we had no trouble going the rest of the way there. Micki and Vern live in Vancouver -- and it's very hard to get to Vancouver from Portland this time of year.

Vern gets to interact for a bit, then is given a plate of food and sent off to fend for himself so we 'girls' can eat, drink and chat like mad. Hahaha. Julie's married daughter Stacy (Shannon's older sister) also comes, so we're a delightful group: Micki, Marilyn, Shannon, Stacy, Julie and me! Six women all talking pretty much at one time. Okay, I'm exaggerating a little.

These are WONDERFUL friends -- and we always have a fabulous time! Micki cooks dinner for us and we have drinks and talk and talk about just everything and anything.

I wish we'd taken more photos, darn it!!! We didn't end up getting a photo of Julie (again), as she ended up taking the pictures.

They were so sweet to both of us. They even invited us to join them for Christmas Day! Isn't that kind?

They sent us home with gifts from Julie and Micki and Vern. We took over a couple of bottles of eggnog with the booze already in it (something like five kinds of alcohol!), plus gifts for Micki and Vern. But we're thinking of getting some things for Julie, Stacy and Shannon, too...

As for the rest of our day, we did get over (finally!) and get our pedicures and manicures! We really needed both. So our toes and fingernails looked lovely for tonight.

We did drive out and take the card for Summer to Marilyn's hair salon, finally. Summer wasn't there, but at least we did it...

We lost power briefly while at the nail salon! Everybody in the place moaned when it happened! That would have been AWFUL to be partway done and not able to finish up!

It was a CRAZY windy day! Stormy as mad. We were watching a seagull trying to fly into the wind and he just kept getting pushed back again!!!

We lost power just briefly at home, earlier, but it came right back on again, thankfully. We had some branches come down, but the wind storm wasn't that bad for us, I'm happy to report. It could have been far worse. I keep thinking about the storm we had last December 11 -- when we lost most of one big tree and another large tree out in back. Awful.

Well, we didn't get home until around 11:00 and I'm tired. So hopefully we'll be heading to bed soon.

We want to go to Costco (again) tomorrow. And we were going to go to Walmart tonight, but just didn't feel like it. So I guess we'll go tomorrow night.

One Last Note: I think Kris fixed the certificate today. But he's changed the Admin password, so I'll need to chat with him tomorrow. Plus I'm not sure HOW things will work with the new certificate. I thought it might be automatic, but I think you need additional action/information. I guess I'll find out tomorrow... (sigh) It was good of Kris to work on it. I'm very thankful.

Happy Holidays, friends! Sleep well.

Weather Alert: It looks like on top of all the TERRIBLE rain we've been having, we're now slate for a wind storm -- with possible power outages! Happy Holidays, huh?

We're supposed to go out tomorrow night (as I mentioned before). I guess it will depend a bit on the weather, though...

Marilyn is hanging in there quite nicely. Of course, she never complains, so it's hard to tell how much discomfort she's actually having. She's been sleeping quite a bit (for her, anyway). And generally took it easy today.

We didn't go out of the house today -- except when I went in the back to check the tarps. They probably need more work, but whatever. We're hanging in there so far. There was no dampness in Marilyn's bedroom or that downstairs closet, anyway.

We had hominy, green beans and bacon for brunch today. Nice. And hot dogs for a (VERY LATE) dinner. And we had our first eggnogs of the season! Yummy.

We've been playing with our iPads and watching a bunch of TV today. And I personally SLEPT a TON. That's really wonderful, by the way.

There's not much else to report for today, which was very quiet.

Tonight we watched "The Sound of Music" Sing-A-Long. Naturally we enjoy that very much. For those who might not know, this movie had a HUGE impact on our childhood. I was 13 when it came out (Marilyn was 11). We knew EVERY SINGLE SONG by heart -- including all the harmony. In fact, we created harmony for several songs. And we 'performed' the music constantly. We had every kid in our neighborhood playing 'Sound of Music' all the time (pretending to be the various characters), and signing the music. It's hard to convey what a big deal it was for us. And I guess on some level it still is! (smile)

I wonder if the 'kids' from the old neighborhood remember it fondly, too?

Well, that's it for tonight. We need to do our hair TONIGHT, considering we might lose power (which would mean no hairdryers -- hard for people with long hair).

Sleep well, all!

Marilyn couldn't sleep last night, so we were both up all night long. We were in the living room -- with Marilyn on the leather sofa and me in the big leather chair. The cats were with us most of the time, but they did disappear when they finally headed for some serious sleeping...

I finally went in to my bed, but didn't get in it. I just laid on top with a throw over me. I wanted to be able to get up to check on Marilyn and check on her bedroom.

In the BAD NEWS category, we had some dampness in her bedroom again yesterday. In the area of good news, it wasn't very much. I sprayed it and we put a heater on it (which is what I wanted to check on regularly), and we turned on the dehumidifier. There was no sign of wetness in the closet in that same corner, thankfully, so we caught it at a good point. But when Marilyn heard the weather forecast tonight, she got worried. We were due for rain all night long and tomorrow and VERY HEAVY rain on Monday. So we decided to run to the store and get more tarps (and other things) so we could work on that area again.

I re-did the main tarp out back some time ago -- and it's been very tight, with excellent results. But it's far from perfect, of course. The house has an overhang (thank GOD), and gutters that work pretty well. But the seal on the foundation in that area was broken years back, so it's always an issue when there's a great deal of rain. Often our issues are tied to not getting the gutters cleaned out and having rain pouring down from the gutters to the ground directly below. But tarping it helps -- if the tarp is on tight and won't be blown loose and so on.

This year everybody is worried about flooding, it seems. We've had whole cities flooded terribly in the Pacific Northwest this year. I don't mean to lump us in with people who are truly suffering. we know how blessed we are. But still, nobody wants to risk ruining their carpet. Or to worry about health issues related to mold in the house. And we're both sensitive due to lifelong allergies. Plus the carpet in that room is relatively new (2011) -- as is the mattress pad. Anyway...

We weren't sure what to get at the store. It's hard for me to figure out how to cover that area. It's not as easy to do as it sounds. The big air conditioner unit is right there. The spigot for the hose is there. Our oil tank is in that area and the egress for the tank is right there. Our window well for the basement windows into the family room are close by, and my bedroom window is in that corner. Plus it's not far from the huge windows of the living room. The perfect answer would be ONE BIG TARP that ran from under my bedroom windows over to the window well (buy NOT beyond the outside edge). But it would be hard to get exactly the correct size. And to avoid what needs to be uncovered. We don't want to block any windows. And we certainly do not want to get water down in the window well! We could make this whole thing much worse.

Well, when we got home it was pitch dark out. So I took flash lights outside and put them on a chair. But that didn't help much. So Marilyn did end up having to come out to help me (even though she shouldn't have). We got it better than before, but it still needs more work. We'll probably do more tomorrow at some point... But I'm hopeful what we did get done will help.

Meanwhile, the Christmas lights in the front have some issue. I guess the extension cord went belly up. And I tried a different one, but it didn't work, either. (sigh) So I moved the one string of lights. I don't like where they are, but what the hell. They aren't made that well (and didn't cost much), so we may end up needing to toss them out. We just wanted a touch of Christmas outside this year. At least the string of candy canes and the little gold tree are still fine.

I just got interrupted while blogging. Henry was sick in the living room! It sounded like something really wet splashing somewhere. He unfortunately threw up on the garland he and Colin have been in love with and playing with constantly. (sigh) What a mess. He felt pretty bad (he gets embarrassed whenever he makes a mess of any kind). But I held him until he calmed down.

There was talk of working this weekend, but I'm not sure about that. I'd suggested we go in Monday night (when everybody at work has gone home), but we have a dinner party to attend that night with our friend Mickie. And we still need manicures and pedicures.

Well, we're doing the best we can. I'm just NOT going to stress about it.

I do have to mention that Marilyn's oral surgery was for a FRONT TOOTH on top -- very prominent (which is why she can't just have an 'empty' spot while the work is being done). She certainly can't go for months without a tooth there. Also, she had an issue and had to have a bone graft there, in order to attach the post. I think this is the same tooth they had so much trouble doing a root canal on years back. It took THREE attempts by various doctors in order to finally get that work done.

Our family on both sides has bad dental history, so much of this is genetic. Marilyn's always been good about caring for her teeth since she was little, and brushes and flosses all the time.

Well, I need to say how much I'm LOVING my birthday present from Marilyn! Again, she got me an iPad Air 2 -- such a generous and thoughtful gift. I use it all the time. It really works well. I can use it for work and for fun, as well. Anyway, I'm not taking it for granted for a second. I feel very blessed to have it.

On that note, I need to do some chores before heading to bed. Good night, all!

This morning we had to be up early. Sister Sue picked us up just past 7:00 for Marilyn's appointment. We had to drive over to the Lloyd Center area. We dropped Marilyn off, then Sue and I needed to figure out where to park. We drove around a bit, but eventually I suggested a parking garage that turned out to be perfect! It was actually inside the correct building. We didn't need to park very far from the elevators that took us directly to her floor.

That might sound simple enough, but the area around the building is torn up and parking is tough to locate. And Sue has a hard time walking very far. So I was pleased how it all worked out.

Then you need to know where you're going. I'd forgotten the name of her dentist (yeah, yeah, stupid, I get it), so a person in the building helped us reason it out. Then you punch the floor and it directs you to an elevator (there are NO buttons on the inside!). We reached the office and they'd already taken her back. So we settled in, expecting a long wait.

Amazingly enough, she was done in around exactly an hour!

We headed directly to the pharmacy to drop off her anti-nausea medication prescription -- but I didn't want to wait for them to fix it (it was going to take 20 minutes). Even though she was still numb, Marilyn was already in a lot of pain.

When we got home I gave her one of my anti-nausea pills, instead. Then she had something to eat -- they'd told her to eat with the pain meds. Finally she took half a pill for pain and settled on the upstairs (living room) sofa with her new blankie from Costco (so amazingly soft!). Eventually she had to take the second half pill. But she finally fell asleep and slept quite a bit.

She told me that they had to really POUND on her head -- and while they were doing it she wanted to ask if they thought the process was really a good idea. They have to also screw and screw the post into her mouth. I guess the bone graft must have taken well, because they did do this next step.

Marilyn's jawline and chin were very sore: I think that he must have gripped her while doing the work. I suspect she'll be bruised and really swollen tomorrow. I guess we'll see how that goes. As the day went by her pain seemed to ease a bit -- but she was on strong medication. She felt dizzy and sick part of the day. And we really should have gotten her a bunch of soft things to eat!!!

Her surgeon called late afternoon to check on her. I thought that was very nice!

She couldn't have hot liquids today. Nor could she rinse out her mouth. She starts doing that tomorrow, though. She's supposed to take it very easy for a few days. I think they have to stress that because people don't tend to think of oral surgery as being 'real' surgery! There's a serious impact to the entire body. And of course you don't want the surgery to fail because you don't follow your doctor's orders.

I texted with Adeena and Larry (our nephew). And later on with Steven and with Kris. It sounded like things were going well for the staff Christmas party. And Kris told me he had a great time on his recent trip to Chile.

Thanks to everyone for your good thoughts and prayers for Marilyn! She's doing fine so far. And will hopefully do even better tomorrow.

Marilyn's calling Colin Kitty her 'Christmas Cat,' because he clearly LOVES Christmas! He's been under the Christmas tree CONSTANTLY. Last night I was trying to get him to go sleep in one of his normal places, shooing him from under the tree. But he wasn't having any of that! He went back under the tree twice, so I finally gave up and let him stay.

And today he had this chain (it's like the old-fashioned red and green paper chain, except it's metallic paper) down on the floor and kept dragging it around and pouncing on it and playing with it! So cute! Then he was curled up in the middle of it at one point.

Have I mentioned that we decided back in October to try keeping our pumpkins and gourds into December? We thought we'd stick them out in the back yard and just enjoy them until they went bad and needed to be composted. Well, the big gourd showed up with a huge hole almost immediately! So we figured something was eating on it. For a time the hole got bigger, then nothing was happening with it, so I put it out in the compost one week. The next thing you know, other gourds (the small ones) just 'disappear' -- except for piles of seeds all over the yard!

Anyway, today I look out and see a squirrel with his head inside one of the small pumpkins, eating away! Marilyn and I snapped a bunch of photos of him eating. It's the last item left, except for the really big pumpkin. You can see teeth marks on the top of that, but it's pretty thick. I don't know if the guy will have much luck getting through the hide on that one! Anyway, it made Marilyn and me feel good to know squirrels were out there enjoying these goodies. We'll do it again next year, for sure.

I watched a bunch of TV and read and slept today -- and tried to keep an eye on Marilyn.

I had a lovely chat with my neighbor and friend June when she called to check on Marilyn. I need to get over and see her Christmas trees!

Yes, I did my work for the office today. I'd forgotten to make a change to the website, so I had to go in and do it. It really only took seconds, so it was no big deal...

By the way, I made up a bowl of Suddenly Salad (the Classic flavor) today. I don't remember WHEN Mom first discovered it (and couldn't seem to find out online when it was created), but I do clearly recall her making and serving it years and years ago. Marilyn and I loved it then -- and we loved it today, too! It takes about a total of twenty minutes to make it (you boil the pasta and dried peppers for around 15 minutes, stirring frequently). Anyway, we think it's delicious. But it might partly be nostalgia. In our minds, Mom came up with this salad! Hahaha. And it's like she's alive and fixing it for us to have bowls full of it right now...

Isn't it funny? Salad from a mix, but it seems totally homemade to us. It's far from fancy, but we love how it tastes. Well, neither one of us ever claimed to have fancy tastes to begin with...

I might pick up some tubes of cookie dough ready made to cut up and bake, just for the heck of it. We talked about the two cookies Mom used to make that we just loved. You really can't find any like our Mom's versions. The almond slices appear to be pretty rare. And a lot of people make ginger cookies, but we loved the way Mom made them!!!

Anyway, we're certainly enjoying the Christmas season this year. And so are our cats!

I hope Marilyn sleeps well tonight and feels better tomorrow. She wanted to go out shopping today, but she really wasn't up to it. Hopefully she'll feel like it tomorrow, as there are some things she wants.

And we're still thinking about going to the office this weekend, while nobody is there to get some work done.

I hope everyone had a good day -- and will have a lovely weekend. It's hard to believe Christmas is only a week away!!! Good night!

Today was ANOTHER rough IT day for me. Only this time I was in the festival office. But I was dealing with corruption issues with my own Profile (ugh). And more CERTIFICATE issues, as well. I couldn't get on my computer. Then finally I could, but I couldn't get on the internet. Then I could, but I couldn't access the Server drives! On and on and on.

Marilyn needed access to the President's email. We create this account to use for official emails he sends out to the board -- but not for HIM to actually use. Marilyn would take something and post it as him, in other words.

Because he has his own email and needs to receive things there, I HIDE his 'official' email from showing up in the GAL (global address list). This means staff members won't accidentally send email to the wrong account...

But Marilyn had never been set up to have access to this account on her new machine! So first I have to 'un-hide' the account. Then it has to generate (which generally takes around 24 hours). Then we can set access and so on. Then I'll need to go back in and hide it again. All of this is complicated and time-consuming...

Marilyn was supposed to meet with Frank about his message. She'd thought it might go out today. Instead, we'll need to go in this weekend to send it out. (sigh)

The above are some of the IT issues from today. And I was on my feet a ton and up and down stairs a ton, as well... My legs and feet are killing me tonight.

Anyway, we were finally heading home, having not eaten (well, I ate something in the morning -- and Marilyn had some nuts, and that's ALL for the entire day). It's POURING down rain and very cold (well under 40'). We get home, bring stuff in the house and eat some cheese and green olives. Then we quickly head out to go across town to meet our nephew Larry and his son Levi to see the Star Wars movie!

It was such nasty driving -- and we were cutting it SO CLOSE -- that we were about to bag the whole thing and just not go. I'm SO VERY GLAD we didn't do that!

Larry had seats for us, thankfully! And we were able to get popcorn before the movie started. Levi is just the sweetest nine-year-old boy ever, by the way! He and his dad had their Build a Bear bears with them -- one was Darth Vader bear and the other was a Storm Trooper bear! Very cute!

Levi was very excited when he asked if we would be in town for Christmas and Marilyn said 'yes.' I'm not sure what he expects, but we clearly need to find a chance to see him again soon!

I won't spoil, but the movie was EXCELLENT. We all enjoyed it very much. Maybe more than we'd expected. (Everybody was nervous about what Disney would do with it.) We loved Finn and liked Rey and Poe (the new characters). I won't say any more, because you'll just have to see it for yourself.

Marilyn's oral surgery is early tomorrow morning, so we're off to bed!!!

I did get the compost and recycling out, in spite of the nasty weather. This rain is really pretty awful. I hope it's not pouring in the morning!

Good night!

I stayed home from the office again today.

Weather-wise: It was COLD today. I never seemed to be able to get warm all day long! And I kept turning up the heat. It was a wet, rainy and COLD day. (brr)

I spent HOURS today on trying to resolve this issue with the CERTIFICATE that allows me to Remote from home to work. Then after working on it over and over again, I decided to just sign in via the OWA (Outlook Web App). Guess what? It kept telling me I had the wrong 'username or password.'

Hey, I think I know my USERNAME after all these years with the festival!!!!!!!!!!!

And, for that matter, I think I know my PASSWORD, too.

Normally if a password goes belly up for some reason I can go in to the Server and reset it. But obviously I can't Remote in right now! (sigh)

So I phone Christine and we start the tedious process of me trying to get her on the Server and into the correct place to reset my password.

Yes. I did speak to Kris when I discovered this. He was off work and on his way to wrestling. I asked him to phone me later. He didn't. Enough said.

I couldn't get her into the Server on her own computer, so I had her try it on my computer. She couldn't get logged in with my password, as it didn't work (duh). So I logged her in using the Server main Administrator username and password. From there we logged in to the actual Server. I showed her (over the phone) how to reset my password. Then I had her test it via Firefox on the web, using the OWA. She was in!

Me? I tried it on my desktop computer, first using Firefox and then using Internet Explorer. No go. Then I tried Marilyn's desktop computer. Nope. Then I tried my laptop, which uses Win 7 (both of our desktops are on WinXP). No go.

THEN I tried getting on using Safari on my brand new iPad. Nope.

Meanwhile, Christine logged out as the Administrator and in as me -- and the password worked on machine!

I really CANNOT face two weeks of vacation without being able to get in to my work email somehow to maintain it. I get too damn much SPAM on a daily basis. I'd be in the tens of thousands by the time I came back to work in January!!!

Kris told me several things. Microsoft had 'changed' things, so Firefox no longer worked for connecting. Christine was, however, able to use Firefox and the OWA to get in to my email. I couldn't use either Firefox or Internet Explorer to get in from my house...

He also told me that we had a self-signed CERTIFICATE. Mainly what this means is that there's no cost involved -- and the certificate has to be accepted at both ends to work. We should have gone to a digital version (public) LONG AGO -- and the cost would be worth it.

My time might be FREE as a volunteer (!!!), but there's still value there. And I've wasted an awful lot of time on this damn thing over the years. And certainly a TON this time around!!! I'm beyond annoyed about this.

Today was the first time I'd read about the self-signed certificate -- which I did hours before Kris mentioned it to me. I would have no reason to be aware of it, but he's known all along that we had the option to pay for a better version. If he'd mentioned it to me, we would have absolutely budgeted for this, without question. Marilyn, too, was firm about that when she and I discussed it (and she's the one actually in charge of the IT budget). She made that point that HER time is NOT free, and every time I talk to her about this we're wasting both time and money. True enough.

Well, hopefully I'll be able to reach Kris tomorrow and get the ball rolling on the other version of the certificate. This really needs to happen RIGHT AWAY. I'm beyond done with this crap.

Of course, none of this has to do with my Profile at work and not being able to use my existing password! I might need to set a new password to go forward. We've had some issues with resetting passwords in the past, so this password corruption isn't new. But why would it work in the office but not outside it? THAT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE. I just don't have time to research it tonight...

It's late. I need to go wash my hair and head to bed.

Marilyn DID get the important Appeal about our Half Marathon to the City tonight before the deadline. I guess it was HUGE. The paperwork (which she wrote), plus accompanying supporting documents in a giant binder. Jillian worked her ass off to help Marilyn get it done. And Marilyn, Jeff and Steven walked it over to City Hall.

Hopefully they'll reconsider having rejected that event. There should be NO QUESTION that the Half Marathon was always a festival event -- and would NOT be a 'new' event for us in 2016. I guess we'll see what they have to say, once they read everything sent to them...

You know how people say: My work is never done. I swear that when we're talking about Marilyn, that's TRUE! Her work really is NEVER done.

She has ONE MORE DAY to get things wrapped up so she can go on vacation. The first part of said vacation will be to have SERIOUS ORAL SURGERY on Friday (which requires several days after that for recovery). Even with her being off for the end of the year, she can't possibly use up all of her accumulated vacation time (she's NEVER able to do that, by the way). But at least she'll have a chance for two relatively quiet weeks before our season starts in January!!!

She did get home 'early' today (meaning by 5:30 -- the time many people get home each day). I think I'm safe saying that this won't happen tomorrow...

Well, off to do my hair and GO TO BED. Sleep is a wonderful thing!

Early tonight I was so chilled that I finally broke down and soaked in a hot tub. That thawed out my poor frozen feet. (My feet actually hurt when they were in the hot water!) When my whole body was warmed by this soaking, I went in and curled up in bed and went straight off to sleep. I didn't wake up until well past midnight (now). I think Marilyn, too, had a good soak. She was planning to do so right after me (I left her my hot water). But to tell you the truth, I have NO CLUE if she did or didn't. I was too tired to stay awake long enough to know.

I've left off any non-work-related details for today. Sorry! Work pretty much was my focus all day long (and it was certainly true for Marilyn, too). At least Marilyn felt very satisfied with her day and the productiveness of her work. Not so for me!

When IT goes well, you can feel very good about it. It's just that so often IT goes sour. Then I feel pretty lousy about my abilities. I know it's NOT me, but still...

And now, dear friends, enjoy the coming weekend and sleep well tonight! I hope you're finding these days enjoyable -- whether you celebrate the holidays or not.

If you read my blog entry for yesterday, you'll have noted that I had low blood sugar while at the store shopping. Later on I had yet another one! Marilyn and I were headed to bed around 1:30 when I realized I was shaky again. I used the meter and I was at 56!

After eating a bowl of ice cream, I used the meter again and was only up to 58! Usually taking in sugar will bounce you up pretty fast...

Anyway, I was using the meter over and over again. We finally went to bed quite late. I kept the meter by me and in the middle of the night I was really HIGH (well over 200). That was little wonder.

Morning rolled around and Marilyn suggested I stay home, which I quickly agreed to. So much for me signing the Christmas cards at the office today! Oh well.

I spent a bunch of time doing things around the house. I did several loads of dishes, including loads containing glasses, including the Christmas glasses we just bought. They were fine, by after washing they were just shining! And I found our old sets of Christmas glasses that we had way back when Mom and Dad were still alive. One set is stemware with winter trees etched on the side. The other set is drink glasses (short tumblers) with snowmen. Very colorful, using red, white, green and black. Marilyn said she remembered having many an eggnog with those glasses! (grin) Actually, I think we used to drink nogs out of both sets of glasses...

I picked up all over the house, especially in the living room. It was such a mess from decorating the tree and shopping and putting stuff all over the place. The many boxes we brought out with tree decos and Christmas decorations are back where they're stored. I'll bring them out again when it's time to put everything away. i found a few more boxes we hadn't taken out yet -- with some items that are important to us! So there are additional decorations in the living room and family room.

I also set up our Christmas village. It's not fancy, but we like it a lot. It's down in the family room.

I did some laundry and took out a bunch of garbage. I can't seem to remember everything I did!

I talked to Donn about IT. And Steven called me because Christie's Outlook was messed up and needed fixing. Donn and I also discussed the equipment for 2016. He's slated to get the check for that this coming Thursday so he can begin work on the first two computers.

I'm still trying to reason out WHY the damn certificate won't install on my home computer, allowing me to Remote to the office. I phoned and asked Kris about it, but I suspect I'll have to figure this out for myself. I need to spend more time on it...

Marilyn had a VERY BUSY DAY at the office! She's been working very hard on the current project. It's an appeal to the City. She needs to have it done tomorrow morning. She didn't get home until around 7:30 tonight.

We had green beans, little tacos and quinoa and brown rice for dinner, with black olives and dill pickles. I actually brought out the nice plates for a change. (We rarely use them...) The meal was delicious! Marilyn and I both love green beans and could pretty much eat them every day for dinner, by the way. Currently we enjoy the Italian cut version.

Oh! We watched "The Chase" tonight (part of the show, anyway). We just love 'The Beast' and always pull for him to beat the contestants. Hahaha.

I had a really nice man come by the house looking for donations today. His group is local and helps provide Christmas dinner to the homeless.

I added more decorations to the tree today. We still have more to go on, too.

Marilyn and I started watching "Star Wars" last night and finished watching it this evening. It's such a wonderful movie!

We have our tickets for Thursday night to go with our nephew Larry and his son Levi to see the new film! We're going to a theater that used to be a different theater way back when -- which was where we saw Star Wars movies with Larry when he was a kid! Fun. His son is so excited about going.

Well, I'm tired. Marilyn was washing her hair and doing some clothes for work. We'll probably head to bed soon...

Our cats continue to LOVE the two trees in the house! I think it's very sweet.

We got some new throws at Costco. Wow! Are they ever SOFT and comfy! And they're big enough to really cover us. We love them!

I just hunted up some photos of Marilyn dressed as Princess Leia for her to scan and share. (grin)

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season! Sleep well.

Another busy day. We decided to put our manicure and pedicure off for now -- there just wasn't enough TIME today to work either one in. (The plan had been to do one now and the other later...)

We went BACK to Costco today (!!!) to get more Christmas gifts for Staff at the festival. And for Marilyn to get more reading glasses. She'd picked up a package yesterday and liked them enough to get more. She really can't have enough, as it's so easy to lose them... I got more paper plates and we got tissue paper and some various things. Anyway, it was another spendy trip!

We also went to Riteaid for some things, including meds for Marilyn. While we were there, I asked about my meds, which are SUPPOSED to be on auto refill. I was wondering WHY I hadn't been getting any notices. (sigh)

I did two loads of dishes today. And started to gather up garbage to take it out. There's more than normal because my Comcast agent left garbage behind. I found that odd, as I thought he would take it with him! But whatever. I guess it's worth some garbage, considering how much we're enjoying the changes to cable and the new Wifi!!!

Marilyn had to go to the office for a meeting in the afternoon. Annoying? Yes. She only has a few Marilyn Mondays left, after all. I don't like it when she has to work on her days off.

I did get over briefly to see my friends June and Jim. June wanted me to open my birthday present. She got me a stylus (I always need them), and a very cool Swiss Pull Chop device, made by Kuhn Rikon. I'm excited to give it a try. (I wanted to make some more homemade soup -- so when I do that, I'll try it on the celery and carrots.) Anyway, it was very kind of them to give me gifts, which I didn't expect. They are delightful friends and neighbors. More like family, really!

She got a new iPhone 6 Plus -- wow, is it BIG. I can really see the appeal of the larger phones (Donn has a larger phone, too). But in some ways I think it could be inconvenient to carry around. From the reviews I've read, the size is considered both a Pro and Con -- depending on whether or not you want a large phone! Interesting. Anyway, it looks like this phone doesn't have the issues related to the iPhone 6, which is a good thing. Supposedly the battery life is much better, for one thing. I'm happy for June to finally have a smart phone! And I'm happy for me that it will be easier to reach her when she's away from home.

Marilyn and I went grocery shopping at Freddies when she got home from work. We had a rather long list of things to buy. We needed new light bulbs -- those long ones -- for the laundry room. It's been SO DARK IN THERE since both lights went out! And we needed several food items, too.

Unfortunately, I had a low blood sugar incident while at the store. I was wolfing down a candy bar and then got a bottle of pop with real sugar! I hate doing that, but I feel so damn crappy that I just couldn't help myself. The candy didn't do it, so I went for the liquid sugar, too. Then I feel lousy from the huge bounce up! I was close to fainting at one point, if you can believe that. Very, very annoying!!! I had eaten, but apparently not enough. Some days it's just so hard to balance...

Thankfully Marilyn just kept on shopping away! I tried to help, but couldn't do that much. But I was better when we got home -- at least somewhat!

I added a few more decorations to our Christmas tree. And -- believe it or not -- I plan to add a few more, too. Hahaha. It's really looking pretty, that's for sure!

Marilyn and I have busy days tomorrow. We only have three days before we go on vacation for Christmas. Then we'll be off for two weeks. We're looking forward to a restful vacation. The summer vacation was anything BUT restful -- and we had to work during the week we take off for Thanksgiving.

We might stay here in Portland through Christmas Day. We haven't decided yet. If we do, then we'll probably head to the beach house on December 26. With two weeks off, we could easily spend a week here and a week there...

I talked to sister Sue a couple of times today. Larry and Levi are very excited about the movie on Thursday. I hope we can get tickets! Sue's going to see if Nicole wants to go. Both Nicole and Candy were home sick today -- sorry to hear that.

Today is Shari's Dad's birthday (he passed some time back). I wonder how old he would have been?

We'll be pretty swamped at the office this week. That's always true when we take time off!

I need to contact Donn tomorrow. I hope I remember!!!

Sheila has questions for me that I need to address tomorrow.

And I'll be signing Christmas cards until I get them done, too! (sigh)

Time for bed!!!!!!!!!! Sleep well, my friends!

First off, it's now past 2:00 a.m. on Monday (December 14). But I want this to be my blog for Sunday, so I've backdated (yes, again). Sorry for any confusion!

Marilyn and I were up late still decorating our Christmas tree for the Portland house. We've had this artificial tree for many years now (I've lost track of exactly how long). We bought it on sale one year. It's really not a bad tree -- the nice thing is having the lights permanently attached so you don't have to string them on and off (which is a pain, I think).

We used to be extremely fond of live trees (well, cut trees) -- which was our tradition for most of our lives. But they turn into a lot of work over time, and artificial trees are just easier. I miss the smell, but oh well! They make a lot less mess, too.

It's interesting that the cats treat them exactly the same as they would a real tree! I can't get over that. They just LOVE the Christmas tree. One or the other is under it constantly -- or both together. And they're close to it when not under it. It's just so sweet.

We did something really DIFFERENT for us this year. We've been using a 'theme' for years and years now. We started that back when we still lived at home with Mom and Dad. I remember originally we did red and white trees -- and we used a ton of those small, shiny red apple decorations. For several years we've had green and gold ornaments -- mixed with crystal and glass. And every once in a while we'd add something colored differently -- but not much. This year we used our green and gold -- BUT we also included a bunch of other colors! We even put on some ornaments we haven't used in many, many years.

We have a few ornaments that have been in the family since before both of us were born! This year they're on the tree again. And our 'spinning' ornaments are on, too. These are just plastic, with a piece in the center made of thin metal that spins around. How they work is you hang them over lights and the rising heat makes them spin. That used to work GREAT back when they were originally made, because lights were so HOT then. But now we have to make sure they're directly over more than one light. We were both surprised when we realized they were actually WORKING (!!!). They don't spin all that fast, but they ARE spinning! Just like when we were little kids...

There are quite a few MORE ornaments to put on -- which will have to wait until tomorrow! We did watch "The House Without a Christmas Tree" again (smile), continuing our tradition. Then we had borrowed "Scrooged" from Steven (it's his wife Michelle's favorite Christmas movie), so we put it on. I don't know about anyone else, but this movie isn't our cup of tea. Nevertheless, it was kind of Steven to loan it to us.

What else did we do today? We went out for a drive, heading to the office. Jeff was going in today, and we'd hoped to hook up with him for a drink or meal or something (but we missed him). Then we went to Costco -- the goal was to buy me a new Christmas cactus. But they didn't have any this year! How disappointing! Still, we had a good time there and got some things we needed (like D batteries, paper plates and so on). It was packed with people, but we really didn't mind...

We're LOVING our new Comcast WiFi! And our new Xfinity cable service, too. We're still getting used to the cable. But it's pretty cool that we can watch the HD channels on every TV -- even TVs that aren't HD. (We have some really OLD TVs -- in Marilyn's bathroom, my bedroom and the kitchen. So it's surprising how good the reception is now!)

Can't think what else to share. We need to head to BED now. Marilyn actually has to go to work for a meeting tomorrow (sigh). And we have some errands to take care of, too. Anyway, good night all!

I'm BEHIND on blogging. It's been so crazy here that I'm having a hard time remembering Thursday. Anyway, here goes nothing! (grin)

Thursday, December 10
Sister Sue had agreed to take me to the Goodwill, so that's when I started in the garage -- wanting to get all the stuff put aside to donate gathered in the center of the garage to pack up. It ends up in various spots, as we only have limited room out there. (It's a pretty small garage.)

Sue took me shopping at Freddies and then to the Goodwill, too. It was POURING down rain that day. We've been having serious rainfall here in the Pacific Northwest. There's a ton of flooding.

Then I spent ages out in the garage, moving stuff around and organizing things. I needed to get to the boxes that hold our artificial Christmas tree. So while I was doing that, I also got ready to bring home some wine (at least one box). Plus Marilyn got her Diet Pepsi that's part of her contract at work, and we had it all stacked pretty much in two places -- way too high! So now it's in three reasonable stacks that are much safer.

I'm delighted with how things are arranged out there, actually. And I did some organizing of the Pantry Shelf we have on one wall, where we keep canned food.

Then I brought the tree into the house and set it up. I was disappointed to discover that there were lights out. I'd found the string we've used for years as replacements, so I brought it into the house and started pulling lights off of it to use on the tree. Then I started going through the lights that weren't lit one by one. It took hours. Yeah, I know that's crazy! But I did finally find the 'bad' lights and get it lit again! I was pretty excited.

I also got out some of our other decorations to start putting up Christmas here in the Portland house.

Friday, December 11
I wanted to do more decorating. Early in the day I heated up the last of the homemade soup to eat. And somehow I aspirated something (probably barley) into my lungs. I'm constantly having issues with getting food 'down the wrong way' -- so normally I think nothing of it. I cough it up or blow it out through my sinuses. But this time was different. It seemed to go very deep right away -- and I felt a pain inside my chest (really uncomfortable). I know aspiration can be serious (that's why they won't let you eat before surgery, for example). So I looked it up online and got worried. I decided to call my clinic. I left a message there for my nurse practitioner's assistant.

She finally called me back and suggested I come in for an x-ray. I made an appointment to see Chris (another nurse practitioner), as Leslie was booked solid. It was for 2:50. Then they called BACK and asked me to come at 2:30! So I arranged to do that with sister Sue.

They had me see Dr. Chan (not Chris). He examined me and decided not to do an x-ray.

I came home and was supposed to keep an eye out for shortness of breath or other signs that I might have an infection or the beginnings of pneumonia. (I talked to Donn at one point and he told me that was exactly how his mother had died.) My chest was painful, I felt yucky and swallowing hurt. I didn't eat again until much later and was barely taking in liquid. (Which means I was dehydrated.)

That's not great, because I've been having HORRIBLE leg cramps. In fact, I had a terrible cramp in my right arm! I've never had that before! The area near my bicep was so knotted and twisted that you could easily see it. And my left leg was cramping all the way into the hip. That started on Thursday (after the Toy Drive on Wednesday).

I did get out a lot more of our Christmas decorations and started putting them up. And we were going to The Nutcracker Friday night. Marilyn got home and suggested I wash my hair, so I went to take a shower. She sat down on the sofa in the living room. I called out to her a couple of times from my bedroom, but assumed she'd gone downstairs. Finally I come out to see what's up, and she's sound asleep!

So we got a LATE start -- and traffic to Vancouver was AWFUL!

We were in terrible traffic for more than two hours before we threw in the towel and just came home. We were both starved, so I made dinner and we went right to sleep after that. We were sorry to miss the event (which we love), but that's the way it goes sometimes...

TODAY -- Saturday, December 12
I got up early so I could 'tidy' up around the ENTIRE HOUSE (!!!), in preparation for the Comcast installation agent to show up! Today was the BIG DAY -- we were getting all new boxes for our TVs, plus Comcast internet and :::DRUM ROLL::: new WiFi!!!

I was racing around making beds and picking up and washing dishes and moving furniture. I knew he could arrive as early as 10:00, so I wanted things as ready as possible for him.

He came around 11:15. His name was Kevin -- nice guy. He was pretty shocked when he saw how many boxes it was! Hahaha. At one point he showed me this enhancer device he had to install because we "have too many TVs" (according to him). Marilyn later said you can't have too many TVs. I think it was a kind of amusing thing for him to say, considering!

He had to put in an entirely new box on the outside of the house where everything comes into the house. That took him some time. And we figured out where to put the new modem in our office. We're keeping Century Link for now, so it had to be a different space.

Anyway, it took hours, but he got it all done (with help from me). I helped him move furniture and so on.

The new equipment is pretty amazing! When we record something with our DVRs, we can play the stuff back on ANY box in the entire house! That's true for anything we purchase, as well. (We have some Bond movies and the Jurassic Park movies, so I can attest to being able to play them IN MY BEDROOM on the really old TV in there!) If we use the XFinity App on our devices (iPads, iPhones, etc.), then we can play and even download stuff to watch wherever we happen to be. Wow.

I'm worn out tonight. It was a tiring day. I had to put everything BACK where it belonged after Kevin left. I think it's pretty much done, but maybe not...

Marilyn and I had planned to decorate the tree tonight, but we were TOO DAMN TIRED. Tomorrow night!

She went to the party we were both invited to early in the day (right during the appointment). Then after that she went down to the office to get some work done. She got home just as Kevin was leaving. Marilyn is planning to go in tomorrow, too, and get more work done... (It never ends.)

We need to do some grocery shopping. We're out of certain foods. Hopefully we'll do that tomorrow. And we also need to get manicures AND pedicures pretty bad.

The cats are just THRILLED about the tree! They treat it just like a living tree, by the way. They can sit under it for hours at a time. It's really sweet to see!

We have a small fiber optic tree downstairs, that sits way up on top of a stand. Last night neither one of us had seen Colin for hours, and we found him way back in the corner sitting under that tree -- even though he was really nowhere near it!

We're both pretty excited about the cable and WiFi changes, I have to tell you! We're still using CenturyLink for the desktops -- we need to switch everything OFF our old emails. This should force us to finally do it! But we no longer need the Extender we had downstairs that Donn set up for us, because we get WiFi just fine in the entire house with Comcast.

Oh! My friend June phoned about going to dinner. She and Jim wanted to go for my birthday! Isn't that nice? But we were so tired out I begged off for today. She had her new iPhone (woo hoo), and had been trying to set it up. I told her to take it to the Verizon store and have them do it! Marilyn and I never set up our own phones. And they don't charge to do it, so why not? Hopefully that went well for her! I'm excited for her to have a smart phone. I think she's really going to like it!

Well, we need to head to bed and I'm tired out.

Still praying we won't flood. We had heavy rain again today. I'm now worried about a different side of the house where the ground is VERY WET (a standing pool of water). It would go into Marilyn's bedroom, too... (sigh)

Sweet dreams, friends! Take care!

One of my major goals today? Finish training Sheila. She's been officially at work since Monday (!!!), so she needed to complete her training session. I was concerned, because neither Rosanna nor Shelley ever really did complete training. And our policy is that no one should be on a computer in our office unless they've done exactly that.

But this was TOY DRIVE day -- and things started at the office at 4:00 a.m.! I wanted to be there before 6:00, because I knew singing (the choir) was happening for the first time between 6:00 and 6:30 a.m. -- and I wanted to sing with them. I've done this in the past.

Marilyn and I BOTH were singing during the first choir segment! Very cool. And Marilyn had been slated to speak during one segment. But because of the extreme weather situation -- with terrible flooding everywhere -- our segments were being cut all over the place (and Marilyn got cut). Actually, Adeena -- who is our Living History Rosie -- was put into Marilyn's spot (Marilyn's decision). So she did make TV (and Marilyn did not). But both Marilyn and I WERE on TV. In fact, I didn't miss a single session of singing with the choir all morning long, which started at 6:00-ish and ended just past 9:00 a.m.

Part of the time I was just in place with the choir. Part of the time I stood beside Santa. And part of the time I stood with Don (the choir director). I just love to sing, so that's what mattered to me!

We got some AMAZING toy donations, which included some wonderful bikes and a man who every year brings us electronic devices. This year it was several RCA tablets. We all liked imagining kids opening those and be shocked by the quality of what they'd received!

Besides having the media there for hours, the place was full of our staff and various people slated to appear on TV, including the choir and Santa. The Crown Prince float was outside, decorated beautifully with lights for this event! We had giant snowflake lights up on the side of the building. And a tent set up just outside the door in case of rain (which we had on and off). And it was 'snowing' outside, with fake -- very real looking -- snow falling!

And people would bring toy donations into our parking lot (which was empty for exactly this reason).

Aside from the Toy Drive, I had festival website work to do. And a bunch of IT-related items, as well. I recall 10:00 a.m. quite well, as by then it felt like it should be mid-afternoon! It was a very LONG and tiring day. At one point I was upstairs at my desk typing away, and the next thing I knew I was nodding myself awake! I'd fallen asleep while working...

The local flooding in the Pacific Northwest was awful! Several cities and towns were under water! In one place a tree fell and cut a house in two, killing a woman inside instantly. Obviously the focus was on the weather, but we did still get a lot of the live segments, even so. News anywhere is always a blend of good and bad happenings...

I'm proud of the IT things I got done. AND I'm pleased with the website things I did, too! Plus I finally finished up with Sheila. We did 45 minutes in the morning, then I kind of forced the issue a couple of times in the afternoon. It wasn't easy, because as our brand new Business Manager (we've never had one before), she was SWAMPED! And I'm not kidding about that.

I was busy when Marilyn and some others went to Starbucks, but they brought back coffee for both Angel and me -- very nice! Later in the afternoon, Carol and I walked over to the Turkey Place and got lunch. Marilyn had been supposed to go somewhere else, but that fell through! Plus she managed to get a dentist appointment for 3:00! So she never had anything to eat ALL DAY LONG (except two baby Payday bars).

I was happy she had the dentist appointment, anyway. She'd been in enough pain in the morning that she phoned about it. She was worried she was facing another root canal -- plus needing treatment for an infection. The good news? Neither turned out to be true!!!

What else? Well, we had another session with TV starting around 4:30 p.m. and going until 7:00. It was a CRAZY-BUSY day all the way around.

In the VERY, VERY TMI category (sorry about this!), I've been constipated for days. So I had stomach pains much of the day. Not when I ate lunch, happily. But by evening I wasn't feeling very well...

Marilyn and I did leave by around 7:15 to head home. We stopped to get McDonald's (as Marilyn was starving by then!), then got home just in time to see "The Middle" on TV at 8:00 p.m. It was the Christmas episode of "The Middle" -- but it was a very sad episode. I was pretty disappointed by it...

Marilyn ate, watched the show and went downstairs (I imagine to nap). I stayed upstairs, using my bathroom and napping on my bed when not in the bathroom.

Now it's nearly midnight, and I'm blogging before heading to bed. What an exhausting day!!!

Marilyn has a very busy day tomorrow. And I'm staying home to get some things done around here. I need to to the garbage and recycling, clean up, put up our Christmas decorations and our Christmas tree.

I hope that maybe sister Sue can take me to the Goodwill (I have piles of things that need to go).

I was also planning to stay home Friday -- but our Christmas cards (there are hundreds of them) need to be signed by all the staff members so they can be mailed on Friday. I was just going to skip it, but Christine talked me into coming in to sign. (She's convinced that it's essential for both Marilyn and me to sign. That's probably NOT true in my case, but it's sweet of her to think so!)

Marilyn bought our tickets for The Nutcracker (we also attended last year, as mentioned HERE). Aisha and her father Brian (Carol's daughter and husband) are both appearing again. Christine also got tickets for her and Zander, so they're going to sit with us! Can't wait!

I had a great visit in the evening with both Carla and her husband Gary (who played Santa in the morning -- we had a different Santa in the evening). I have to MISS their Christmas event on Saturday, but Marilyn and Adeena are going to attend together.

I'm probably forgetting things, but I'm sure this is long enough for one day! Time to head for bed, as tomorrow is a busy day...

Today was crazy, as is often true at the festival office...

I went in expecting to train Sheila -- especially in light of the fact that we were NOT expecting her to be at work yesterday, which she was. It turns out that Jeff was as surprised as I was -- apparently he discouraged her from working on Monday, but she just wanted to get in and do her job. It's hard to discourage that attitude!

Donn (and his wife Denise) came in quite early so he could work on the Sheila's Profile. And I was in meeting with Jeff when I heard everybody singing to Christine (for her birthday), so I went upstairs to join our very short Staff meeting. We were told we'd be leaving the building at 10:00 to head up.

I was actually dealing with IT from early morning on. We were still having issues with our Certificate. In fact, my own computer was frozen up! And I couldn't get my email to work at all!!! Annoying.

I sent a text and then called Kris. But we had to leave, so I was unable to give him the info he needed at that point.

Marilyn and I had Jeff and Adeena riding with us in our car. It was raining when we got there, and very blustery, as well!

Everybody was meeting in the outdoor area where we did the rose planting back for our Centennial year. It's covered, but with the wind blowing so hard, we were getting very wet! Our hostess gave quite a speech while we stood there, then finally took us inside. We saw the library, where our things were on display. Then we left our coats and went on a self-guided tour of the beautifully decorated Pittock Mansion.

By the way, Pittock Mansion has been nominated for USA Today 10 Best -- feel free to VOTE to get it into the TOP TEN (it's currently in the top twenty). You can vote once a day until voting ends.

Anyway, after that we did go to Starbucks. And I put off training Sheila until Wednesday, as she was so swamped all day long. She was meeting with Tanya. Then there was a budget meeting at 3:30 for the Management Team.

Donn and Denise really LOVED the Pittock trip -- and got their photos taken with Santa! Marilyn, Jeff, Adeena and I were the first to leave to get back to the office. Just after our entire group got back they had to CLOSE it because of a power outage!!! The issue with flooding and high winds was a big pain all day long, yet again.

The 'pool' near our office which is part of an old fountain was full and finally over flowing! I was in the basement over and over again to check for flooding. (sigh) We're expecting another couple of inches of rain tonight before morning, so hopefully we won't flood!

I had to deal with IT problems. Donn mentioned that Sheila didn't have access to the K: drive. I had no clue at first that he was talking about her -- so I told him to phone Kris and also mention that Jeff couldn't save to the Q: drive. But when I realized he met Sheila, I told him it was something that I could fix. Kris had NOT fixed it (though he'd said he had) -- so I did. It's something that currently only I know how to do. I need to teach it to Donn!

Later in the day I fixed Marilyn's IT issue with her phone and email. I might need to do that for everybody with their phones. I guess we'll see tomorrow!

I also had to make some changes to the website, which I did. More to do tomorrow, too.

I'm really looking forward to the TOY DRIVE tomorrow (Wednesday)!!! I'm planning to sing in the morning. I'll try to get Marilyn and some others to sing, as well.

If you're LOCAL, look for us on KPTV Channel 12 starting at 5:00 a.m. (There will also be coverage tomorrow night, but I don't know if any of us will be on TV then.)

Anyway, we need to HEAD TO BED early, as we should try to be at work before 6:00 a.m. So I'm skipping the rest of this entry so we can go to sleep! More tomorrow!!!