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 . . .