It was a very busy day again (of course). We got a lot of things done while many people in the office were on site for the Junior Parade in Portland's Hollywood District. Marilyn and I just came hurriedly home from an event (we had to leave in the middle) because Marilyn got sick there, poor thing. I guess if we're going by the concept that everything happens for a reason, it might have been a sign that she needed to come home and rest. That event probably had another hour (or far more) to go. And even though we love attending, I guess we'll just rest for the remainder of the night, instead. Adeena left when we did -- leaving Jeff and Brett behind (both in their uniforms and ready to speak or help hand out awards if need be). This was the award ceremony of the International Youth Silent Film Festival tonight at the Hollywood Theatre. Marilyn started the day with one of her biggest meetings of the year. Jessica was back today and in attendance. I was home. We had the Exchange down and I was on the phone with Kris for an hour. Anyway, he restarted things, so it was okay. So of course I wasn't ready to walk out the door when Marilyn came back for me! But I got ready pretty fast, if I do say so myself. I'd been starting to get ready when I ended up on the phone for ages with Kris, which was not a bad thing, by the way! I got a call on the way to work from Kate -- our CoolerEmail was down. This happens every single year! I spent ages on it once we got to the office. Kate wanted to send today's eNewsletter at around 11:00-ish, and at 10:00 I was feeling like I'd never resolve it today! But we were back in business in plenty of time, happily. Meanwhile, I had called Oliver -- not realizing he has nothing to do with Cooler anymore. He chatted with me for around 20-25 minutes, then I had to go! I also went back and forth with our friend Rob. Finally I just asked if I could have another Chalet pass for him and I got it, I'm pleased to say. Later Jeff came by to pick it up and got to say hi to both Marilyn and me! Later in the day cousin Linda came by for her Grand Floral Parade tickets! So we both got to see her, too. And she got her tickets for Saturday... After dealing with Cooler, I went on the Server and created a Profile for Sue B. I was going to put her on Annie's computer (between Allison and Tashae). But I get down there and there's no computer there! So I had to move Najib's computer there (he's been gone for ages now). I did a minimal setup of how we usually Profile people, as she'll only need the computer for a few days... I talked to Braden and told him what a good job he'd done! And how much I'll miss him. He's such a nice, hardworking guy. (That was what I was talking about yesterday. He's done as of next week.) I was doing more Server work -- and working on a map -- when Marilyn told me that we were going to the two float warehouses. Sue came back from Junior and she drove. We first went to Carla and Gary at the mini-float warehouse. Then out to Funtastic to see the other floats. The Court was there when we arrived, with Leslie. It was a very muggy, miserable day! Ugh. I was dripping sweat by the time we returned to the office. We were there for a spell before getting ready to go to dinner before tonight's event. I was doing website work. I figured out a way to get the Interactive Souvenir Program to display on mobile devices -- which it had not before. Then Rich gave me the Junior Parade results to put up at the website, and I formatted those and posted them. We went to the Hollywood District and found a place to park. Jeff and Brett (our president this year) were already there, waiting for us! Adeena joined us and we five had pizza and beer (Adeena had cider) for dinner -- Brett paid (wasn't that nice?). Then we headed to the event. J.P. met us at the door and let us all in for free as his special guests. That was a nice change! We got popcorn and stuff and went in and sat near the front as we always do. Jeremy was already there, and he joined us. We saw several films before Marilyn got quite sick. She disappeared at one point (I had no clue why, but should have guessed) -- then came back. And soon after took me out with her (and Adeena followed us). Anyway, we're home now. She's been feeling just a bit under the weather for several days, but not giving in to it. She doesn't really have time to be sick just now. I'm upstairs to change out of my sweaty clothes and get comfortable and blog. Then I'll head down to check on her. We have a lot to do before Saturday, but it will all get done, I'm sure. Neither one of us is worried at all. There was a lot of talk about 'what went wrong' with the Junior Parade. But Marilyn and I talked that over and we agree: Short of someone getting hurt (which didn't happen), this is a parade where things can't really go wrong. Aside from the first several entries and the various bands, there's no set order. And it doesn't matter much if the order gets mixed up. You end up with happy kids marching down the street and happy kids watching them -- and it's all good. It's a very laid back parade, really... The fleet started to arrive today! It started to rain tonight. But it's not that heavy. And maybe it will clear up some of the mugginess! That's pretty much today, anyway. I'm sure I'm forgetting things. But every day seems like it goes on forever! And so many things are happening. Sweet dreams, friends!  - Feeling:busy
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Yes, today is officially Mayor Harry Lane Day -- according to our mayor and because of Marilyn's efforts! Here are a couple of interesting articles about Harry Lane: Meet Mayor Harry Lane -- Funmaker and Harry Lane War Hero. Harry Lane was a well-known and respected Oregon politician. A medical doctor by profession, he was the grandson of the first territorial governor of Oregon. He was mayor of Portland after the turn of the century and established a reputation as a man of principle. He was considered the worst enemy of the corrupt politicians, cops and shanghai artists who were virtually running the city when he arrived. He had a reputation as a supporter of women’s suffrage and an advocate for more respectful treatment of Native American tribes in the state of Oregon. And he was a man of peace during a time of war. Be sure to read more about him using one of the above links. Or go and google him. He's a man worth knowing! Portland actor David Rianda has impersonated Mayor Harry Lane as part of the festival's Living History program since 2007 -- that's ten years as of 2017! Dave is a wonderful man who takes this role very seriously. So David and several members of our staff -- including Marilyn, Angel, Adeena, Suzanne, Christine and me -- started our day in Lone Fir cemetery beside Harry Lane's grave on this very beautiful, sunny day. Soon joined by our 2007 President Leslie and the Court for 2017. Because this is a man worth remembering! I wish I had all the words of the 'Whereas' here in front of me that Marilyn wrote on behalf of the mayor, because it's very cool and very impressive! After that the Court headed off on their way (they are very busy right now every day). And most of the staff went back to a busy day at the office. But Marilyn went off to discuss security for the festival in light of world events (and especially all the issues happening here in Portland). I met with Donn about the work he was doing in the office today. And with his granddaughter Ashley (who calls Donn 'Grandpa'), who wants to volunteer to help me at the Grand Floral Parade this year. And soon after Adeena took me to Safeway for deli Chinese food (and peanuts), then home (before heading back to work). I've been suffering with leg cramps. And today I was also having spleen pain (again). Good grief. But what a gorgeous day! Perfect for our 'event' for Mayor Harry Lane! I got a bunch of work done on the computer and rested as much as I was able. And went briefly over to see June and Jim (who gave me some keyboards for the office). Then after another crazy day at work, Marilyn came home pretty early for her! We were ready to lie down for a 'nap' around 9:00 -- which is unheard of here at our house! Hahaha. Now it's past 2:00 and I'm blogging as usual. And I'll take my meds and head off to bed. Tomorrow I train Tashae, who is my last trainee for this festival season (considering our festival begins on Friday!!!). Normally I wouldn't be training someone this week. But if you check out last year, I was training this same woman on May 25, so... Hahaha. Yes, I'm actually re-training her tomorrow. And I have my NEW set of training notes ready! We've added a bunch of stuff. More about that later. I really need to head to bed now! Good night and sweet dreams! - Feeling:happy
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Saturday, April 22:We got up early with no trouble and packed up, put on our uniforms and drove straight to the Blessing of the Festival at St. John Fisher (a very modern Catholic Church in SW Portland), where Archbishop Alexander Sample became the first Catholic archbishop ever to bless the festival. (It's a pretty big deal to get an archbishop to your event!) The weather coming home was good and stayed that way for the entire event (there's always an outdoor rose planting ceremony after the service). Good service -- and the Archbishop was very impressive! Plus our President, Brett, did a good job (with the speech Marilyn wrote and he tweaked). And the Court looked so nice in their pretty dresses! We have a VERY diverse group this year. (Click to see the full size.)  Most of the young women on the court are there (there are 15 in all -- this is NOT a mandatory event for them to attend). And that's Jeff and Brett in the center (Jeff is left). Once again, our Friday/Saturday morning mini-vacation at the beach was really LOVELY! We always hoped we'd take MORE quick trips like this to the house. Now we want to try. We realized that if we go the 'fast' way, we can be back in Portland a full hour (or more) sooner. There's no reason we couldn't stay over and still GO TO WORK (!!!) the following day, if we got up early enough... We got Chinese takeout on Saturday for dinner. And watched our usual METV shows that night. Sunday, April 23:We did end up going to take cans/bottles to the BottleDrop (from both work and home). We also went to Walmart -- the NICE (fancy) one over in Washington. We haven't been there in AGES! We went around 8:00-ish and were back around 10:00 p.m. Our game finished up at 4:00 a.m. -- we both actually got up to check it out. Hahaha. I WON (!!!) the Mayor's Race for the very first time, which was exciting for me. Yes, we're still playing SimCity BuildIt. (But we no longer do the 'magic midnight' routine. In fact, it's been ages since we did it...) Monday, April 24:I stayed home today, good thing. I had terrible stomach pains much of the day! This started when I had my Activia yogurt for breakfast with a cup of coffee. Decidedly a gastro thing. I was having gastro issues on Saturday night, too (and didn't sleep that well for getting up and down). I'm sure it's because of being sick last week. I wasn't eating or drinking normally, or keeping a normal schedule at all. It was a cold and miserable day. (ugh) Rain and more rain! Just nasty. I finally forced down a bunch of apple cider vinegar in the afternoon. Not sure why I didn't do that earlier! We swear by it, and it does always seem to help. Even though I didn't feel all that great (awful pain on and off), I still got a TON of festival website work done today! In fact, I'm really pleased by what I accomplished! Part of it was making a new banner for one of the concerts. The one we'd been sent was pretty inappropriate for the festival, I'm afraid. So when we got complaints I made a new banner that we put up instead... Then I set up an entirely NEW event page for our Eclipse Experience event we're having August 21 at Waterfront Park. It needed an Event Info page, so I got to test out that complicated procedure, using my incomplete (!!!) notes. At one point I was confused, so I phoned Brit. But she needed to go to a meeting. So I just stuck with it myself and reasoned it out. (woo hoo) Tonight I made a banner for another concert on my iPad (!!!). Then I logged in to the site on my iPad, too!!! No, it's not easy to work on our website on your iPad, but it CAN be done. I totally proved that tonight! I added the banner I made and changed out the Copy/code and the event details. So it's now Live. Marilyn had a massage therapy session with Amanda in Donald, Oregon tonight. Here's a photo of her back after her cupping therapy. (Click to see the larger image.)  The bruises are NOT painful. In fact, Marilyn was trying to put into words her experience after the cups were removed. Apparently it was difficult to describe, but she felt like she was floating. Cupping REALLY, REALLY WORKS for her to help with her tightness and pain. You can read a lot of supportive things about it, but also a lot of negative things. Western medicine is reluctant to accept alternative medicines, even if they help. Maybe especially if they help! Pharmaceutical companies have no reason to support things that don't make them money. Marilyn said she knows her gastro expert will say the same about her taking peppermint capsules for her IBS-D, even though it's worked like some kind of miracle. He'll say it's in her head. Been there, heard that over many years. But she can't just PRETEND this is working! It's been a serious issue for many months. And now she can even EAT AND DRINK on many days without a problem! That was impossible for ages. Well, I'm off to bed, even though I've barely covered the past three days. I'll try and write more soon. Sweet dreams!!!  - Feeling:accomplished
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Surprise, I slept in again today. Marilyn really didn't feel well yesterday. She was pretty miserable last night and not sleeping very soundly when I checked on her. She was actually cold at one point. (In order to cool the upstairs, it gets far too chilly downstairs. But we're NOT complaining -- it's wonderful to have air conditioning during a heat wave here in Portland.) Anyway, I covered her and she went back to sleep. Later she was having nightmares and might have been too warm. (Hard to say.) She had an early morning meeting today, so was long gone by the time I got up. I did pick up a bit when I got up. And started taking out the recycling, as it's garbage (not REAL garbage) day. So recycling and composting need to go out... (I'll do that when I'm done blogging.) Marilyn did come home at one point today and had a piece of bread and took a very short nap. Then she headed back for an afternoon meeting. She was glad she'd been there for the Auction meeting this morning (we had a lively discussion about it). I talked with Donn several times as he was working to get things fixed for our friend (and neighbor) June. This is tied to things from yesterday. I found it VERY ANNOYING that I was able to change her password last night, but it wouldn't work this morning for some reason. Anyway, Donn had to spend ages getting that fixed. I think he put hours and hours in on this, to tell you the truth... Thank God for Donn! Anyway, he not only resolved the password issues for Google (and gmail) and Comcast, but got June and Jim's WiFi up and running again (I certainly couldn't do that yesterday!). Next he'll work on her computer, hopefully that won't be too difficult. I also chatted with Adeena a couple of times today, which always cheers me. Right now it makes me feel less cut off from everything. I know it's not a big deal to be stuck at home, but what can I say. I had curry noodles for lunch, but ate less than half. I didn't have a bite of food until then (past 3:00) because I wasn't hungry... I messed around on my iPad, worked on my email a little, picked up around the house a bit and that's pretty much it. I'm still too fatigued to do much. Hector came today and mowed the lawn, thank heaven! It really needed it!!! Marilyn ate leftovers from last night for dinner and I finished my noodles. We watched Hillary accept the nomination. It's history, after all. No matter what your politics are, this is the first woman ever to be nominated for President in this nation. This afternoon and evening I've had pain in my side. Well, we looked it up, and it appears to be spleen pain. That's totally connected to mono, by the way. There's no TREATMENT for an enlarged spleen. Seriously? Just like there's no treatment for mono. (sigh) We were thinking about going to another fair this weekend, but Marilyn pretty much nixed that. (sigh) She reminded me that I'm not supposed to be doing anything. Well, I'm off to take out the recycling, anyway... Yes, I'm boring these days. Sorry. Goodnight! - Feeling:tired
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Maybe I should explain: My icon 'friends' is from a scene in the movie "Newsies." (grin) So, Marilyn, Adeena and I went to see " Newsies" at the Keller tonight. We sat in Box 14 (and I've had a lifelong dream to sit in that box someday, so it was COOL to be there!) and had front row seats. (Box 14 is way on the side toward the very front of the room, so you do miss a little of what's happening on stage. But it was still AWESOME! It's wonderful to be that close to the stage. I always felt it was glamorous because that was the box people sat in when they did it in the movies... smile...) I cried a ton during the show, I was so delighted by it! I probably didn't stop crying for the first ten minutes, I was so moved. Just a joy to be there! (Adeena bought the tickets, but I need to pay her back for mine. She's giving Marilyn her ticket as a belated birthday gift. Adeena is incredibly GENEROUS all the time.) We did attend Clown Corps Graduation today -- and Jeff was back from Fiesta San Antonio and also was there. It's a good group of clowns for 2016 (all women). And Marilyn did her usual great job speaking to them. (Jodi was there helping, as was Carol's husband Brian. And Aisha, Carol and Brian's daughter, was there, too. She's such a sweet girl.) Kate attended, too. I thought that was really good of her! After that we went back to the office and met up with Adeena. We hung around for a bit then headed to Mandarin Cove to have dinner, which was REALLY YUMMY! They aren't very good for lunch anymore (sadly), but do wonderful food for dinner (a totally different menu). We each got something different and ate them family style, sharing. And the tea was strong and hot. We ate a ton! (Marilyn was kind enough to pay for our dinner. She's always generous.) After that we walked to the Keller. I got a glass of champagne (don't ask how much that cost!) and we all three got souvenirs (I got a tee and they got hoodies -- plus Marilyn and I got mugs). Fun! The show was just WONDERFUL!!! There aren't words. The Keller was PACKED with people! I know there were a few empty seats, but it was really a pretty full house! And the crowd LOVED the show! They cheered and clapped constantly -- which the performers deserved! At one point after the newsies had been dancing the clapping just went on and on and on! Marilyn and I both posted to Instagram from the event. And I sent mine out to my Twitter and Facebook accounts, as well. And get this: Disney's NEWSIES at Twitter REPLIED TO MY TWEET!!! How cool is that? I was pretty impressed that they're that on it when somebody Tweets about the show. They wrote: Enjoy the show and never forget to #SeizetheDay! I don't Tweet all that often, but I suppose this should encourage me to do so more frequently. Hahaha. After we got home, Marilyn and I grabbed our list and forced ourselves to head to Walmart to shop. We needed a ton of stuff. I put on my Newsies tee and she put on her hoodie! And we listened to the Newsies sound track (from the movie) all the way there and back home again. We had a very full cart of groceries and supplements. If you guess that it cost us more than $200 you'd be on the money... The car was full to the rafters coming home. Now I'm blogging before we head to bed. We both got more than 6,000 steps today (but I don't know the exact number and don't have it here right now). Marilyn did get the Mayor's statement done for the souvenir program, by the way. And started on the president's message. Tomorrow afternoon Marilyn and Jeff meet with The Oregonian (newspaper and online communications) about the festival for 2016. They plan to get together in the morning to play what they'll cover and who will say what in the meeting... Adeena Photoshopped a picture of the Court for the website and other uses. She took people out and filled in the background with trees -- it looks great!!! I'm really pleased with her work. Can't think what I'm forgetting to mention tonight. I know there was something I wanted to say, but it's not coming to me... Marilyn said Sue was GREAT when she talked to her this morning about tennis. I'm so glad to hear that. Well, off to bed! Sleep well, all. - Feeling:enthralled
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Marilyn had another very, very busy day -- with plenty of stress thrown in. She had a couple of personnel issues she needed to iron out (and, yes, tears were involved). Thankfully my own personnel problems did not involve crying. Let's start out with the good news for today. We hanging in there with our walking! Fitbit update: Marilyn got 6,189 steps today. And I got 10,150 steps. We both took another walk today with our president and friend, Frank -- plus friend Angel, too! It started out raining lightly, but that really got heavy by the time we were headed back to the office! Marilyn had her raincoat with hood -- but it doesn't keep her all that dry! The rest of us had no hoods or hats -- but both Frank and Angel had umbrellas. Angel did try to keep me under his umbrella for much of the way, but that didn't really work all that well. I was pretty soaked by the time I got back to the office. The good thing is that rain just makes my curly hair even more curly! (grin) Sister Sue phoned first thing this morning to talk to us about tennis player Maria Sharapova. For those who might not have heard, she announced on Monday that she failed a drug test at the Australian Open this past January. Sharapova, 28, said she had been taking the drug mildronate, also known as meldonium, for 10 years to address a number of health issues, including low magnesium levels. Meldonium is a blood-flow-promoting drug banned because it helps oxygen uptake and endurance.
Sharapova said she had been getting the flu every couple of months, had irregular EKGs and had evidence of diabetes, which runs in her family. She said she did not realize that mildronate and meldonium are the same drug and was not aware when rules changed January 1 to make the drug illegal. She said that when the World Anti-Doping Agency sent an email about changes to the banned list in December, she did not click on the link to see that the substance had been added to the list.
"I know with this that I face consequences," Sharapova said. "I don't want to end my career this way, and I really hope I'm given another chance to play this game."Marilyn and I were discussing how ridiculous this situation is. First, athletes fail drug tests all the time from innocently taking medications for one purpose or another. Second, Maria has been taking this drug for a decade -- and it only became an illegal drug this year. The situation really seems unfair to me. And the legal consequences seem extreme. We've been fans of Maria forever, so I think it's awful if this situation ends her career. But I've said before that I think the drug testing for all sports is far too strict. If someone has allergies or gets a cold, they don't have the same options you or I would have to take a simple medication to prevent them from getting a secondary infection! That just doesn't make sense to me... Interestingly enough, Marilyn had wondered late last night whether or not Sue had heard about this. So we were pleased when she called to discuss it. She sounded really good to me before I passed the phone over to Marilyn. We didn't get to talk long, though, because we were in a hurry to head to work... I wanted to start training Katie (Marilyn's assistant) to be able to do website edits for various events that 'belong' to Marilyn and Katie (like GFP). As I mentioned yesterday, I had set up Katie, Kate and Jessica so they had access to WordPress and could start interacting with the website. But it's complicated -- and they need some instructions on how to get started. But we started our day heading to Starbucks -- Marilyn, Jeff, Frank and me. Many of the usual suspects (like Rich) were over at OFEA again today. Jeff kindly bought my Starbucks for me! Yes, I got a Flat White again. I love them! Soon after getting back to the office it was time for Staff meeting, which was lightly attended (again due to OFEA). I was in and out of the meeting, because our princess announcement for today was early this morning. I had the time at 9:30 -- but Rich told me it actually began at 9:15! So I was sure we'd be done prior to 10:00 (when Staff meeting begins). But this was David Douglas today, and they have an assembly that covers numerous things besides the princess announcement. So I didn't have the photo until well past 10:00... After that I had Donn at my desk for a brief meeting about what he was working on. Then Katie and I meet and discussed the website. Then Marilyn asked me to join in the walk I mentioned previously. After I had dried myself a bit, I found my blue jacket that I keep at the office -- that has a hood -- and I headed out to find something for lunch. So I did get wet again, I'm afraid. But I was hungry, so I didn't care. Anyway, that's why I had more steps than Marilyn did. My afternoon was really busy. I did find a minute to sit in on one of the Clown interviews that Angel was having in the downstairs conference room. I'd never sat in on one before, so I was really excited to do that! Adeena came in during that to see Marilyn about her upcoming stint as an intern, so I got to see her briefly, too. I almost forgot to mention that I set up with Kate to do the Facebook announcement on Friday, as I'll need to be with Marilyn for her doctor appointment at the time the princess announcement will take place. Kate and I went through it all -- and next week we'll split doing these. A good portion of my afternoon went to working on the How To website, focusing on the website portion. There are two separate pages dedicated to people who use the website. I had been surprised to discover recently that ONE of those pages -- a page I spent ages setting up last year -- was NOT displaying at the site! When I investigated, I found out that the page was there -- but I had failed to set up the navigation for people to be able to find it! How stupid! That's been fixed now -- and was what I was still working on when they went into the Creative Team meeting in the upstairs conference room at 4:00. Marilyn finally came over (not sure exactly when) to remind me that even though I was deeply involved with coding, we needed to go for the day. Happily I'd been waiting for that, so I didn't take long to pull myself together to take off. We drove way out to Marilyn's hair salon, where we were attending a Botox Party. Marilyn's hair dresser, Summer, is always very lovely with us. We were happy they were having another one -- especially before festival time -- as somehow we'd managed to miss the last two! It's not really a 'party.' They have some food to nibble on (a few veggies, meats and cheese, some crackers) and some wine (or cold water). But it's about getting Botox (or some related treatment) done by an expert at a discounted price. WE both have the area between our eyes on our lower forehead done (where you end up with scowl lines). The effect is really nice. It relaxes that 'angry' look that people get, and lightly 'lifts' the eyebrows, as well. It's far more subtle than you see on TV, if you're wondering. Most people have absolutely no idea we've had anything done at all. But neither of us tend to be angry people! Yet our faces can tend to look that way without this treatment... There were a lot of women there, so we had to wait well over an hour in a rather small, crowded room. (And it was hot in there.) Nobody complains, because we want this done (and it costs more other places). Yes, it's painful to have the injections. But well worth it! We were driving home in the dark and it was pouring down rain. Just a miserable night! I forgot to mention that we've been having a cold snap, so the temperature really dropped last night over night! It was only 61' this morning in the house. And I hadn't turned the furnace up very far this morning, so it was still cold when we got home. Then we had a drama about me losing the credit card we use for getting lunches. We had to drive all the way back down to the office to see if it was there. Happily I had stuck it in the pocket of my blue jacket (!!!), so we did find it okay. (sigh) I'm not going to ever take it again, that's for sure! We were home by around 8:00 p.m. -- and both totally worn out from our long, busy and intense day. I didn't mention my own personnel things in any detail, but hopefully it's worked out now. I'll need to follow up on it later on this week... I put on a pot of spaghetti sauce to go with the leftover spaghetti. Marilyn eats the sauce on her wraps (low carb), and I eat it on pasta. And I also made a pot of green beans, which were delicious!!! So that was dinner. I was so tired I couldn't wait to lie down with my Kindle. But I didn't get to read for long! I was out like a light. Thankfully I woke up in time to walk around and get my 10,000 steps! I was only a few hundred steps shy, so it would have been awful not to get them. Can't remember if I mentioned Jeff losing his Fitbit yesterday! But he did find it, thankfully... Now I've blogged, and I can't wait to head back to bed. We need to go shopping at Walmart (were out of a ton of the supplements we both take). And we'd like to go and see sister Sue, too. I guess we'll see how tomorrow goes! We've officially ditched possible plans to head to the beach house this weekend. In fact, we'll need to head into the office to work, instead. It's okay. It's a busy time of year for us. I just went and looked in the mirror. You can barely see my poke marks where the needle went in. I didn't bleed hardly at all, which is unusual for me (I tend to be a bleeder). It hasn't gone to work, yet. But it lasts for months when it does. Tomorrow I have my dental appointment at noon. I'm still not sure how I'm getting there, but I'm leaning toward walking to get the steps. Sweet moment: I had a phone call from June telling me that either she or Jim would take me! Remember that they're both sick with that nasty flu right now! I think it's lovely of her to offer, but I can't let either of them do that, considering. I'm worried about them as it is! Well, bedtime! Sleep well, friends. - Feeling:busy
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First, just a moment from late yesterday... I heard back from Chris with Rose Cup. Those of you who have read my blog for many years will have heard me talking about Rose Cup. It's been a festival event for decades (over 50 years, actually). It's now gone to a sanctioned event (announced in November 2015). Anyway, years back I created a small website where we put up seven concentrated pages dedicated just to Rose Cup. I wrote my own website code for this, back in 2008. We're going to now transfer domain ownership to these new owners. And I'd offered to let them use my html code for this year for their website, in place of creating a new site. Be wary of being too generous with people. I'm just sayin'... Regardless of the old (very worn out) site, I think all the data there (including tons of previously written text and links to websites important to the event) would be enough to make them want to use what I have. But no, Chris was extremely unkind and dismissive about the old site. Fine. Obviously he doesn't want what I have. I get it. So I'd put it all up for him to view -- and last night I took that all down within mere seconds (less than a couple minutes, seriously). So now he can create his own website from scratch, and come up with his own information and contents. I never heard the words 'thank you' for my work (nor am I likely to, clearly). And I'm pretty much done with helping out, needless to say. I'll help process the ownership change, them I'm quit of it all. And good luck is about all I can say. (I was going to offer to help with it for the rest of 2016, but to hell with that.) Let's just say that if you want the good will of someone who can offer you extensive FREE help, all you have to do many times is be polite (rather than rude), and be gracious and appreciative. I've done a lot of work in exchange for some kindness -- and for pride in what I've produced. Sorry if these products have become less attractive and old over the years (kind of like me -- hahaha). But I'd also suggest that SOMETHING is better than NOTHING, if you have those choices. (The Roosevelt Alumni people might have decided to happily ditch the website I created, as well. They voted on a new version repeatedly and so on. But when push came to shove and they discovered the COSTS involved in changing? Well, they're STILL using my website to this day! I suppose they will eventually change, but again, something beats nothing at all...) That was a lot about that. Not a rant, exactly. But I did find it pretty amusing, to be honest. I have a feeling they might regret not jumping at the chance to use my code for a few months, at the very least. But maybe not. Who knows? Maybe they prefer not to have a website until they can get around to making a new one (whenever that might be)... Happy moments today:Seeing Jessica again! She was with us as an intern last year -- and is back as a seasonal assistant this year. I love her! And training (re-training) went very smoothly today. Marilyn, Frank (our president) and I had a nice walk today (even though it was quite cold -- and started to rain at the end!!!). More steps! (woo hoo) Much of our Staff was at OFEA today. Jeff's presentation went really well (woo hoo). I'm only sorry I didn't get to attend it. (OFEA started on Sunday and ends tomorrow.) The princess announcement for today went very smoothly! Marilyn got a phone call from Hector when we got home from work tonight! She said he sounded very good!!! We're both so happy about that!!! (According to our message from Sandy, his wife, he had a serious stroke two weeks ago. He's been having trouble remembering people and words...) Sister Sue finally phoned me around 9:00 tonight (I'd tried to phone her repeatedly all day long). She sounded great and said she'd had a good day! I had a nice talk today with Jeff about "The Walking Dead."
I'm probably forgetting good things to share, but that's several, anyway! We went to Starbucks this morning with Jessica. I'm still hung up on Flat Whites. They gave me an extra shot (free!) of Espresso today -- and Joe made a joke that he would think I'd be the last person to need it! I loved that! Hahaha. I set up Katie, Kate and Jessica for WordPress access to our festival website. I gave Kate access to our 2016 Distribution Group on the festival Exchange (our internal email). And I wrote up the steps for giving someone NEW access to any given Distribution Group (when I couldn't find any notes about how it's done). You know, I'm GOOD at telling how these things are done. Just sayin'. I helped both Jessica and Kate set up their phones to receive the Exchange (both have iPhones, thankfully). I got to see Rich briefly when he came over from OFEA to do the press release about the new princess. We got hard boiled eggs (one each) plus avocado for me and grapefruit for Marilyn for lunch. And had leftovers from last night for dinner tonight. Fitbit Update: Marilyn got around 7,400 steps today, and I got around 7,200. Not bad at all! Bad news: My neighbor Jim has the flu now, I'm sorry to report! June is still down with it, too. I'm VERY WORRIED about both of them!!! The flu can be serious sometimes... I'm working in the office tomorrow and Donn will be in. I get more dental done on Wednesday at noon. I'll find out Thursday if Seth is accepting Jeff's job offer. If so, I'll need to create a Profile for him -- and Donn will need to set it up on Friday morning. Then I'll need to train Seth on Friday. There's been talk about us going to the beach this weekend. But I don't know if that's happening or not at this point. If we do go, Jeff really wants to come down. And that's it for today. I need to go color my hair and head to bed! - Feeling:busy
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Really exhausted, so I'll just post a really QUICK post! It was a busy day -- and a very busy night (of course). Marilyn actually wrote her speech this morning at home, so we didn't go in right away. But when we did get in we went to Starbucks with Jeff, Christine and Shelley (everybody else was over at the Auction venue getting ready for the event). Then we did some other work before heading over to the Auction venue. Marilyn and I were taking my laptop with the PowerPoint for the Appeal. Plus I took stuff to 'fix' PeeDee -- but they didn't need it, so it was okay. I also took over the glass fish bowl for the drawing. We've had one for years, but it had been broken. So FISH Marketing gave us a new one (the original one came from them). Anyway, I bagged it up and we took it there. After we were done, we went shoe shopping. Marilyn wanted new shoes for the Auction. We went to Famous Footware and we both ended up getting shoes. Then we stopped for tacos and rice takeout for our lunch. We knew we needed to eat something to keep us going until later, because dinner wouldn't be served until around 8:00 p.m. After eating at home Marilyn washed and did her hair and I took a nap. Then we got up and got ready. Sister Sue arrived and I got an 'emergency' call from Carol who needed extra wine glasses. In spite of heavy traffic, we made it there by just past 5:00 for the rehearsal. The really good news was that the PowerPoint was playing PERFECTLY! It was hitting all the musical marks. Awesome! We signed in and got our bidding numbers and Auction books. We settled sister Sue at our table early on (so she didn't have to stand very long). The silent part of the Auction is downstairs (where we enter) and the dinner is upstairs. Then it's getting tokens for drinks and buying drinks for friends. And greeting people all around the room. And lots of photos. Adeena looked lovely in her black dress. Mark looked great in his tux. I loved how Sue looked in her black pants with the black and gold top (and she'd had her hair done today and it looked wonderful). Marilyn wore her hair up (everybody loved it!) -- and she and I were a big hit in our tuxes. I can't say at this point how we did on numbers for the Auction, because I don't think we know, yet. But people were cheering the PowerPoint. And they cheered for Marilyn's AMAZING speech! She spoke about a young (teenage) girl who came to Portland right before World War II, fell in love and got married. Then the war came and her husband was away fighting and she was with her in-laws in a strange city, with a baby girl. That woman was our mother! And to make herself more at home, she embraced the festival! And later her baby girl was a junior princess. And her other daughters both worked for the festival. This is Marilyn's 40th anniversary, so she's given 40 years of her life to the festival that gave so much to our mother... The speech was INCREDIBLE. That's just a small part of what she said. Anyway, people cheered over and over again during it! Marilyn's goal was that the Appeal would raise $50,000 for our foundation and that's what happened! It was great. She's such a good public speaker. I'm so impressed that during the PowerPoint our President Frank came over and sat in Marilyn's chair next to me (she was on stage at that point) -- and he was just wonderful, saying such nice things. After the end of the Auction we had all these people coming up to our table and saying sweet things to all of us. Very lovely. Anyway, it's a long event and we're 'on' during the whole thing. And on our feet for hours and hours. So we're pretty worn out... I had Adeena next to me. Marilyn and I always sit side by side. Sue was next to Marilyn. And Mark was on the other side of Adeena. (Adeena and I held hands a lot during the Auction... smile...) I had both Mark and Adeena helping me track the numbers, which Marilyn and I always do each year. We usually get at least one other person to help us. This might be the first year EVER that nobody checked with me about a single item! And they didn't even ask me for my book after. Odd. But I suppose that's a good sign. It was nice to see a lot of people that we don't get to see except for the Auction. Amy used to work in the office and she comes back every year. I always pray for her and her sister (they live together) and her family. She once told Marilyn that her parents were praying for her. And I've been praying for them ever since. Her father has had some serious health issues, but is doing pretty well right now. It's a true blessing. Her mom and dad will come and stay with them for the entire month of December -- I think that's lovely! Our friend Jodi was there, too -- she also used to work in the office, and used to be in our writing circle. She's currently back in Portland and going to seminary and seems very happy. The list of all our friends is long, so I won't even try to list it here. But these are just wonderful people. The Auction is a ton of work. But it raises a lot of money for our non-profit organization, so it's a very important event. Marilyn gave a $1,000 to the Appeal (as we'd discussed). And Adeena gave $100 (me, too). And sister Sue gave $50! We believe in supporting the Auction. We believe in supporting the festival! I have a couple of photos to share. Maybe I'll manage to gather some more later on. Marilyn was seeing tons of these online tonight... Photo share!!![clicking on these will bring up the larger version]  Me, Adeena, Marilyn and Sue (Adeena posed between us for this shot)  Me, Mark and Marilyn I'm drooping now, so I'm heading to bed any second. We've promised a friend we'll go hear him speak at an event tomorrow morning, so we need to try and drag ourselves up in time to drive there. His is an interesting story! More about that tomorrow. Good night, dear friends! - Feeling:exhausted
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Not only did we GO to the St. Johns Parade today, but Marilyn and I actually WALKED IN THE PARADE!!! Who knew that would happen? Long story, but we were supposed to get a photo of the Junior Parade Grand Marshal to use as our announcement. He didn't show at the formation area, so we went the entire parade 'just in case' he showed up during it (he didn't).
Angel (our Clown Prince) had his new scepter! He was great (always is). The Clown Corps was WONDERFUL! I forced Rich to walk with us. We three had on logo shirts, which helped show who we were. Frank was directly behind us. Then the Court. Then the Royal Rosarians. We were right at the front part of the parade!!! My face hurts from all the smiling and smiling, but I loved it!!!
Home and into different clothes so we could go to festival storage where we were involved in the vignette about the new mini-floats that will appear in this year's Grand Floral Parade. Marilyn had a camera there, but she needed to produce this.
Me? I was in non-logo-wear, so I could be someone learning to create floats. I spent my time interacting with the community volunteers -- including two little girls -- AND painting a float (I did close to half the painting by myself).
Carla did a GREAT job today. And Gary (her hubby) is always awesome! And of course Arthur was fabulous.
Home again (right now) very briefly to make ANOTHER clothing change, then head to long-time Board Member Gail's 70th birthday party (at a country club). Originally Arthur (who was at the filming) said: "You look cute the way you are!" Then I said, "It's at a country club." And he said, "You need to change." And we both laughed.
I need to go touch up my make-up and off we'll go.
Our billboards are up everywhere! Saw a few today while out and about.
My feet are VERY, VERY SORE tonight from all the walking. And even my hands hurt. But we'll survive this. Then we'll get home and start talking about TOMORROW. Hahaha. It's that time of year!!! - Feeling:excited
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This was an interesting day! Marilyn took off for an early morning meeting (Auction) without me. I'm sure she figured I'd take too long to wake up and pull myself together, so she just left. What I didn't know was that she planned to come home during the day to get me...
Anyway, I got right on the phone to sister Sue, knowing I had to be at our Winter Board Meeting which was tonight! So I 'begged' and Sue kindly agreed to drive me to the office -- even though she was getting ready to have friends to her house to play cribbage. One of the fun things was her bringing Eugene along when she came to get me! I really like him and I rarely ever get to actually see him. So he was up front with her and I climbed into the back for the dash downtown.
By the way, I suspect Marilyn would have been surprised by just how FAST I pulled myself together to go to work! I had this huge bag of stuff I'd wanted to drag in that I had to leave behind -- lucky thing, as Sue ended up dropping me across the street from the office in the rain! (Wow, it was a COLD day, too!) One of the items in that big bag is an actual table. Friend and neighbor Jim made it for me years ago to hold my computer tower up off the floor. Now I have a desk in my home office that holds the tower (Marilyn and I have matching desks, actually) -- so I've been using it for other things. Recently I moved it out of the office -- and now I want it at work, where I really, really NEED IT. (We were using a plastic bin -- upside down -- to be our 'table' upstairs, to hold computer equipment when we're working on it. So that table will be PERFECT!) I guess I'll drag that bag -- that also contains other stuff -- in to the office next week...
When I got there Rich asked me to sit in on his photo meeting with Gayle, one of our official photographers. She wrangles 'the boys' and keeps track of the annual schedule of festival events that they need to handle. I think I had some good points to offer, so I really enjoyed joining the two of them... (We had our meeting over at Starbucks.)
Got back to the office and decided to work on the Training Website that we've had for years for the festival. (This used to be at the festival website -- prior to the NEW website launch. I've been in a BAD WAY not having that site to train new people, I have to tell you.) Marilyn and I agreed to put it on our personal website (the same one I used to move the mockup of the Franklin Alum site). We've had this website since 2002, and it's never had actual navigation, because we use it for cyber storage -- and that's all. We originally planned it as a 'family and friends' website, where we could easily share personal stuff. But it just never happened. And in recent years I just haven't had the TIME to even mess with it. Still, there's a LOT stored there, even so! I've put images there that I used in my blog and for other purposes. (Just found another website mockup there. The one I did years back that was ignored! This had only happened to me once before -- and they actually decided they DID want me to be their webmaster. But the decision came AFTER I'd taken on the festival website -- and when I first worked on that I was way, way too busy to do any other sites...)
The training stuff might seem to be a small amount, perhaps -- but it's that much LESS that I don't have to include during my training sessions (which generally run from 90 minutes to two hours as it is).
I got a TON of work done, anyway -- so I'll be able to use the 'new' version of the site next week for our other two interns (who both start on Tuesday and need to be trained that day). I'm very happy about it! And I can direct our Staff there (again) as in the past -- plus share it with the two interns who never had a chance to see that stuff...
We just got home at 9:40 p.m., by the way. Actually, we got home about a quarter past 9:00 -- then Jeff texted us about going for a drink and a bite! So we threw our clothes back on (we changed the second we got through the door... hahaha...) and drove over to meet him. We had margaritas and some dinner (we were all starved) 'on the festival' (corporate VISA) -- Jeff felt we'd earned it! And it gave us a chance to both 'talk shop' and unwind from what has been a VERY BUSY WEEK!
I did go out earlier in the day to get some lunch. Good heavens it was COLD! But, frankly, it's very cold at my work station upstairs. Several times during the day I just went downstairs to 'warm up' a bit from being upstairs working... Marilyn had a couple hard boiled eggs as her lunch -- hardly a few bites to keep her going! I had soup and a sandwich, so it's not like I didn't have anything to eat all day. Still, by night we were hungry, so...
Rich presented at the Board Meeting for the very first time -- and did a great job! Marilyn WAS AMAZING during her two presentations (one was about the Knight Cancer Challenge -- I'll share MORE about that in the future). She's such an excellent and passionate public speaker -- it's very hard for others to compare (and no, this isn't because I'm biased -- I'm quite serious!). Communications is a big part of Marilyn's life -- and she truly is one of the best in the world at communications. She's equally good in front of a group, on radio and on TV. Other presenters included Jeff (of course -- he's our CEO), Todd (our President) and several Staff members (Rich, Carol, Christie and Danielle), plus several Board members. Our guest speaker was unable to get a plane here and had to be scratched last minute (!!!) -- so Marilyn spent much of her day reworking our agenda and program to make up for his loss. But this is what we all do, and we're damned good at it -- so it turned out just fine! By the way, ALL the presenters did a great job and the meeting went really well!
I'm tired -- and I can only imagine how exhausted Marilyn must be! Oh: Good thing Sue took me in. Because of Steve being unable to come, Marilyn wouldn't have had the time to get home and bring me in, after all!
When it comes to the Board Meetings, I always say you should be 'in the hospital -- or dead' if you're going to miss one. Hahaha. Yeah, I'm kidding. In her lifetime, Marilyn has only missed TWO -- one because of a car accident and another when she was quite sick... But it's an important part of our job and we all need to be present.
I'm leaving out other parts of this busy day. Oh, right: Mark was in today, too. I was BUSY, but he sat upstairs and talked to me for ages while I tried to continue working. (Well enough, considering all the coding I got done while we chatted!!!) I helped Marilyn give him a NEW official title -- going from Festival Videographer to Multimedia Coordinator. He loved this, by the way. (Thanks, Marilyn! Titles matter to people...)
I was joking with her that I need a new title, now that I'm no longer: Webmaster & IT Manager. You know, that's how my name badge reads, so... Hahaha.
Well, I'm off to do the garbage and recycling! Got to get it done before bed.
We have tomorrow OFF. Marilyn's going to Sue's doctor appointment with her and then to an appointment of her own. She wants ME to stay home and get ready to head to the beach. By tomorrow night we'll be sleeping in our beds at the beach house! (June and Jim are keeping an eye on things here for us while we're gone.)
Speaking of June, she phoned me around 5:00 p.m. tonight. I've been trying to get over to see her this week, and she was hoping I was home so I could drop by. What a disappointment! I'd have loved to finally get over so we could chat. I've really been missing her. But at 5:00 we were on our way over to the Board Meeting. Hopefully I'll get to see her next week (when we're back from the beach)... - Feeling:good
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