Dirt, Hair, Cooties and the Devil . . .

I'm ashamed, I'm embarrassed, I have failed. For years I have gotten up every Saturday morning, put my hair into a ponytail, wearing my grubbies, grabbed my collection of cleaning supplies in it's handy dandy carrier grabbed my vacuum cleaner and performed the time honored tradition of "cleaning" house. Oops, I left out the part about cranking up the music in the house. I start at one end of the house and enter every room with my arsenal of cleaning products, dusters, sprayers, wipers and clean as no woman has cleaned before (or at least since the previous Saturday). As I finish cleaning I turn on the vacuum cleaner and move furniture, etc. to diligently suck up every morsel of dirt, grime, cooties, etc. that may exist on my floor or carpet. There is nothing that brings me more satifaction than hearing the little tinkle, tinkle noise of things going up and into my vacuum cleaner as well as admiring the "vacuum lines" in my carpet when I am complete. It validates that I have been here, I have done my job and NOW the room is clean. OR so I thought. I have noticed lately that my Super Powered Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner has been making alot of noise lately. I keep checking the bag and yes, it is still sucking up lots of junk, it's just that the motor has seen better days. So recently on a trip to Freddies I noticed that they had vacuum cleaners on sale, and although buying a vacuum was not on my list when I entered the store, I came home with one. It is the new "Turbo Powered" Bissell XP, sounds like a video game or something. I get it home and connect things together. It's one of those bagless models, which I though, "well, this is good, it will save money on buying new bags all the time". After I get everything all hooked up, I fire it up and decide to vacuum our little carpeted area in the family room. Seems to work fine, definately not as noisy as the old vacuum, very nice carpet lines, ok, so let's check out the container that collects the dirt. "OH MY GAWD!!!!" It's nearly full!!!!! What??? that can't be!!!?? This is unreal?? So now I am on a mission I completely vacuum the rest of the house. It's sooooo embarrassing, all these years with my bag vacuum cleaner (I guess out of sight out of mind). Now that I can see the dirt, I am obsessed with getting rid of it. Here I thought I was cleaning everything so spic and span but my Super Powered Dirt Devil failed me. So next time you try to call, if I don't answer the phone, I'm probably vacuuming so I can't hear you.

Wrestling or Brad Paisley? . . .

Great day at the Memorial Coliseum on Friday watching the high school state wrestling championships. Of the three kids from FG that qualified two are still in

contention. Our 103lb'r will wrestle tonight in the championship match and our 285lb'r is advancing in consolation today towards third place. Not often do you see the floor of the coliseum completely covered in wrestling mats. I like that they moved the state championship back to Portland from the Salem fairgrounds venue. They had to split the different divisions into two separate locations in Salem and here they are all in the same place 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A & 6A. There are 12 matches going on at the same time so there is lots to watch. Our 103lb'r was featured on this video that OregonLive recorded (hard to believe that Andy was that weight or less as a sophomore dripping wet).

Josh Johnson defeats Farmer at 103 pounds

There was a brief break between sessions yesterday afternoon. Since hubby was going out to eat with his score table buddies, I hopped the MAXX train to Lloyd Center for a little shopping. On the return to the coliseum a number of coaches, parents and wrestlers unloaded off the train and headed back towards the coliseum passing the Rose Garden on the way. "You have any tickets?" "Hey, you need any tickets?" It was a mob. For country singer Brad Paisley was in town Friday night as well and the scalpers were out in high numbers. I heard lot's of the kids and coaches say, "Yeah, we have tickets to the state wrestling championships, do you want those?" To the dismay of the scalpers who thought they were going to be making some big sales deals. I won't say I wasn't tempted . . hmmmmm . . watch more wrestling or checking out Dierks Bentley (the opening act) and Brad Paisley's show . . well, wrestling won out.

Gotta love the weather . . .

I am awakened by a 5:00am call. "hello?" in my scratchy sleepy voice. "we are on a 2 hr. delay this morning" says the boss. "what's wrong?" I say, "guess we have had a bit of snow overnight" he says, "Ok, I'll see you later" as I roll my head back to the pillow. SNOW . . again . . arrghh. So up I get since now I'm awake anyway . . tiptoe out to the mailbox and grab the newspaper . . might as well enjoy a cup o' joe while I wait for the flurries to settle. This is crazy . .

Tired of the flu . . .

Entering week 2 of the flu. A week ago Sunday, in the evening the scratchy throat began. Not enough to keep me from my beach adventure on Monday, but by Tuesday it was the full blown flu. I shouldn't have but I did go to work on that day, which was my demise. "You don't sound good Mrs. C.", "What's wrong with your eyes?", "You sound funny" "Oh man, don't you hate that flu, I have had it too". So on Wednesday when I got up . . I said screw this I'm staying home. What has been even worse about this go around is hubby and I have both been sick at exactly the same time. Not good. We are both fighting for couch space, the Kleenex box, the oranges in the refrigerator and who can be more crabbier to the other because we both feel so rotten. We stayed home Weds, then again on Thursday. Doing the usual routine of Tylenol, sucking on the Halls lemon menthol drops, then NyQuil before bed. Sleeping horribly, coughing all night, just pathetic . . actually just like the commercials on TV. By Friday I couldn't take it any longer and went back to school, I thought I was feeling pretty good until all of the above comments were repeated to me again. Great. I arose on Saturday, still not feeling good and said to hubby, "I'm going to Urgent Care, this is ridiculous", "Fine" he says but doesn't volunteer to go along, he is not a fan of the doctors office. I enter the waiting room at 9:00am with expectations of being one of the first patients there . . . sadly mistaken . . the waiting room was full. I worked in health care for 19 years and I know better than to wait and go to an urgent care clinic on a weekend, but here I was and I felt a kinship with everyone there, they all looked and sounded just like me. Young people, old people, babies held by a sleep deprived parent, all of us wanting relief. When I finally returned to my car at 11:30am (yes, 1 1/2hrs later) I was holding prescriptions for antibiotics, some megapowered cough syrup and an inhaler. I had high hopes that after ingesting a few of these products I would feel better. That was Saturday, this is Monday night, I'm still feeling like &#@*. This would be the year that I skipped my flu shot . . arrghh . . cough . cough.

Should we adopt a college student? . . .

A few years ago we became one of many Americans that took control of preparing their own taxes by using the software program Turbo Tax. It's easy to use, and walks you step by step through income, deductions, credits, etc. etc. to the point of sending an e-file federal and state tax return. You can have your refund direct deposited and specify the specific date to mail any amount due the government via bank wire transfer (ie. 4/15/09). Our tax situation is fairly uncomplicated. We have probably one more year of claiming our last child as a dependent, taking advantage of the educational credit of college tuition assistance (which we have been able to do for about the last 8 years) and I think after that, we are pretty much screwed. As most homeowners dream of . . our mortgage is getting smaller, but that means our interest paid is getting less and less, meaning a smaller interest rate deduction. We are healthy and don't have huge medical bills to deduct (knock on wood). Sure, we give to charity but not in the thousands of dollars (maybe we need too?). So what's a married filing jointly couple to do? The suggestion at the end of our tax return is to buy something that creates more interest . . . hmm . . to create a deduction, of course. Invest more into retirement - yeah right! now is a good time, as I watch my current investments tank . . not a real motivator to deposit more. As I sit here and complete our tax form and pay our part as a "good" American family, why isn't somebody out there busting all those people who are getting by with not paying their part. It was mentioned and I should not have heard this, about the millions in unpaid taxes that occurs every year, geezz . . seems to me that maybe they need to hire Dog the Bounty Hunter and take of some business.

Even the men will eat this quiche . . .

This recipe was featured awhile ago on Paula Deen's "What's Cooking" show. I quickly scribbled it down and tucked it away in my overflowing recipe box. Pulled it out this past weekend and whipped it up. It was great, so I'm sharing.

Hash Brown Quiche

4c. shredded potatoes (frozen shredded hashbrowns, thawed/drained worked great)

1/4c. melted butter

3/4c. ham (diced) or sausage (cooked and crumbled)

3 green onions (chopped)

4 eggs

1c. half/half

1c. shredded cheddar cheese

salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In large bowl combine potatoes and butter. Gently press into a pie plate, like you would a graham cracker crust, making sure some of the potatoes come up the side of the pie plate. Place potato crust in middle rack of oven and cook for 25-30 minutes. After removing cooked crust, reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.

In smaller bowl combine eggs & half/half, beat lightly. Fold in ham, green onions and cheese. Add desired amount of salt and pepper. Pour egg mixture into cooked potato crust shell. Flatten smoothly with a spatula, place in 350 degree oven and bake for 30 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes to rest before cutting pieces to serve. Top with green onions and dollop of sour cream.

You will love it!

Road trip . . .

Hmmmmm . . . go straight or turn right? decisions decisions . . .

I was going to plant pansies in flower pots, I was going to start taping woodwork, so I can start painting my kitchen, then when the sun came out this morning and it was so beautiful . . I just decided . . . I'm driving to the beach! If I would have told one person they would have said I'm crazy, so I didn't and maybe I am, I just went. So I grabbed my jacket, filled my cup with coffee, picked out some CD's for the ride, and off I went. I even lived dangerously and left my cell phone at home . . . Just thought I'd take a day and get rejuvenated by staring at the ocean . . I think it worked, I love the beach.

Nice day for my road trip . . . .

A little shopping . . . .

Some fresh dungeness crab for dinner tonight . . .

Thanks to our President's! for this great holiday!

Better late than never . . .

Happy belated Bday to my bro, he's old, I'm old, we are all old and I'm a day late by China time! . . . As I just arrive home tonight at 10pm after being out of the house since 7am this morning, our Valentine's day was spent running the time clock and keeping score at the district wrestling tournament. Quite romantic don't you think . , and even to make it all the more exciting during a one hour break at the tournament we drove to the local Canby Fred Meyer store and decided to buy ourselves . . since it's such a special holiday and all . . drum roll please . . . the most sensual gift ever for this day of hearts and candy . . a new camping tent for the summer! ha! So there you go!

Back to McDonalds I guess . . .

Sitting at the dining room table last night I am catching up on balancing my checkbook. I am writing in some gas slips, a slip for a dinner we had at Newport Bay over the weekend, then I begin to write down my grocery receipt amount from Fred Meyer this weekend. It's a big long receipt like they usually give you that has coupons attached. Normally I just write down the dollar amount in my checkbook, then quickly browse the coupons which are usually for things like diapers, or different things I just never buy at the store. As I was looking at them quickly before getting ready to toss, I noticed something at the bottom in bold print, "IMPORTANT RECALL NOTICE" . . ??? What?? I read on, "Valued customer: You recently purchased the product listed below which has now been recalled. You may return the product for a full refund at any of our stores or you may contact the company at blahblah number. This product may be contaminated with SALMONELLA and if eaten, could result in severe illness to those individuals who may consume this product. DO NOT CONSUME."

The item noted on my receipt is the Special K Protein Honey Almond Meal Bars and YES I did purchase them (as big brother who is watching at Fred Meyer must already know) and YES when I look into my file cabinet next to my desk at work (where I keep them to munch on at break), I have already consumed half of the box!!!!!!!!!! holy SH#T!!! But there is nothing about peanut butter anywhere on the ingredients!! I immediately email my husband and tell him about my find and if I unexpectedly keel over in the next couple days, it's the damn Special K bars. Here I am trying to be a good little dieter, follow the rules, drink my Slim Fast and eat my granola bars and THIS is the thanks I get. I also felt the need to warn my boss about my possible demise on the job, which could occur at any moment while I am sitting at my desk. He laughed and said, "See, this just shows people shouldn't give up deep fried foods, the high heat kills all of those bugs". Oh now he tells me. I am warned by hubby to watch my behavior in the next few days (very funny), and my bowel movements! Oh my gawd! This is stress I really didn't need in my life . . . . and now for my last will and testament . . .

How's a girl to diet? . .

Hey Ref!. . He's stalling! . .

It's that time of the year again . . . when the high school wrestling season winds down to the final District Tournament to determine who goes on to the State Championship. Our boys are long since out of that arena, but Dale and I still enjoy watching and cheering the kids from the Grove on every year. Some of our best friendships were formed during those years that the kids wrestled, and I miss that part alot. We still like helping out at the tournaments and always look forward to watching kids we know participate in the state tournament, which is the last weekend in February in the Memorial Coliseum. This year FG has the potential to send at least 6 wrestlers to the state meet if they perform well at the Canby districts. It's not an easy sport for some people to watch or even like for that matter. I guess, I hear it all the time: "How can you watch that, it's gross", "Wrestling is gay", "Why would guys want to do that?", "Wrestlers ears look stupid", "They are always dieting", "He's way too skinny", etc. etc. etc. That's only a sampling of the negative comments from non-wrestling athletes, non athlete students and even from some other coaches. I guess until you become part of the wrestling culture or family as I call it, you just don't understand. I have also heard these comments from first-time wrestlers, long-time wrestlers and alumni wrestlers: "It's the hardest thing I have ever done", "It's the best conditioning program I have ever been in, way better than football", "I made great friends through wrestling", "I've never been this disciplined before", "I pinned him and I've never pinned him, it was sweet", "He won't go out for wrestling because he doesn't want to work that hard". Wrestling gets a bad rap, mostly because a few coaches have made stupid choices in how their wrestlers cut weight. For some reason people think high school & college wrestling is comparative to WWF, WFC or whatever it's called now . . NOT! Unfortunately, like everything only the bad gets all the press and the coaches/wrestlers making good choices, working hard and playing by the rules are not news worthy, and that's unfortunate.

So here's to another great season and good luck to our team as they head to the state qualifier. You have a fan, actually 2 but I only have one of them pictured in his mini singlet (although they could very well choose to be basketball players! heaven forbid . . ha!) GO VIKS!!

P.S. Favorite quotes to yell at the tournament to distract the referee: "Hey . . he's stalling Ref!", "He's locking hands!", "What's he doing? He's not doing anything!", "Hey, sit down coach!", "He's fleeing the mat, look at him Ref!", "that's an illegal move!", "He's pinned! Hey Ref he's pinned!", "Where's his back points?" and our all time favorite "I think he has ring worm, is that ring worm Ref?"

OK . .OK . .I'll go . . .

Every year Dale works at the Sportmen's Show that's held in Portland at the Expo Center. He worked this last Friday & Saturday in the booth that Leupold has at the show. Every year he bugs me to come and walk around with him after the show to look at stuff (I think it's because he wants to try and talk me into a big hunting trip to Alaska, OR a new boat OR a new gun OR any number of things they sell there that we can't afford BUT he will try and convince me we can do it). I usually make excuses not to go, got better things to do, not interested, I would be bored . . etc. etc. . Well, for some reason I had a weak moment this year and when he asked I said, "Sure, I'll meet you after your shift." Even better I will take the MAX so that we only have one car to drive back home. I was going to take the bus from FG into the Hillsboro transit center, but I decided to drive direct to the transit center instead (just not up for a bus ride). I enter the MAX train, find my seat, open up my book and it starts . . . some guy behind me . . is talking to himself . . LOUDLY . . about the train not leaving on time . . about his coat not buttoning right . . about his bike being broken . . and he's not really talking to anyone in particular. . . just talking to himself with about 5 other people sitting in our car . . So, I think to myself . . do I stay here or do I get on another car?, Oh heck, he seems fairly harmless, just annoying, I'll just stay. "HEY, Lady . . you with the Red Hair!" . . . I slowly turn around . . "I live in Vernonia, why doesn't this train go to Vernonia??" . . . uhhhhh . . Now what do I say? . . "Well, not sure why? but that's a good idea, I think it should". . . he looks serious . . . "the trains on time, the trains on time, the trains on time" he says, and with that I slowly get up and move to another train car, just not really in the mood for conversation. I really could give a full blog page on people that ride the MAX, each trip provides a new story. But, back to the Sportsmen's Show . . . so I walk into the show and it is packed. No economy problem here, oh my gawd! it is wall to wall people walking through 3 huge buildings looking at all this stuff. I grab a map and find the Leupold booth. There is hubby talking to some guys that are looking at some binoculars. Really, he was in his element . . he should be in marketing for that company, nobody is prouder of their product than he is of what they make there. That's why he loves the show so much. He says, "It's nice to have people come to the booth and be so happy with the quality of the product that you work on day after day in the shop. Every person that stops by has great things to say about their Leupold scopes or binoculars, and they are anxious to hear about what we are working on next". So I guess that's cool, and I guess that's why he enjoys doing the show so much. And although we walked around for nearly 4 hours after his shift accumulating a bag full of brochures to exotic hunting locations, NO commitments were made. He is being very "whiney" though about a bear hunt in Canada or Montana . . . win the lottery honey!

New excuse . . .