Sunday, October 26, 2008

All dressed up and nowhere to go

Last weekend's birthday celebration was a good time. Our friends Jo and Andy came down from Tacoma and stayed with us, and a couple dozen of us went out for dinner and shuffleboard. Then we tried to go karaoke, but the place had a live band instead of karaoke that night. Oh well.

I had a few days off of work earlier this week, so we took advantage of the most beautiful autumn day ever by going to a corn maze on Wednesday. It was my first time ever at a corn maze, and it was pretty fun. It was almost kind of freaky to be alone (except for three people we saw after about an hour) in the huge field of corn.

Last night we were supposed to go to a Halloween party. Marc wasn't feeling well earlier in the day, but after he took a nap, he felt better. So I got my costume on, put on makeup (gasp!), and did my hair... and then he wasn't feeling well again, so we aborted. Boo. Halloween parties are my absolute favorite kinds of parties. I just hope that something will come up next year so we have a chance to wear the costumes we bought this year.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Lotsa stuff

Time to play catch up.

Last weekend we went to Grandpa's house for a final goodbye--in more ways than one. Marc's mom and stepdad were on the verge of moving to Costa Rica, so we had a going-away party combined with Marc's mom's 60th birthday party at the house. Earlier this week the closing papers were signed to sell the house and property to THPRD. Friday morning, they left. Within the next month or so, the house will be demoed. Sad, but at least all the stress that's gone along with every family happening since grandpa passed away now has a chance to dissapate with this life chapter now closed.

After a mega house cleaning escapade at our house this week, our friends Lisa and Paul, with their bandmate Philly, came into town from Vancouver, BC on Saturday. We went to their show at Hawthorne Theater last night, where we all just about died from the smoke. (I can't wait for January when that won't be allowed anywhere anymore...) However the show was awesome. We liked acting like real groupies. I highly recommend that you check them out. Click here for Mojave. You can also find them on MySpace and Facebook. They're in the middle of a West Coast tour--so if you happen to stumble upon this and live anywhere in the West, see if they're playing near you and check them out.

Today we took the out-of-towners down to Saturday Market because... that's just what you have to do with people who've never been to Portland. We ate way too much. That always happens.

We have stuff planned this coming weekend (my shared birthday party with Nancy--let me know if you want an evite with our plans!), Halloween stuff planned for the next weekend, and anniversary and birthday parties the following two weekends. Then I think it's only two more weeks after that before we leave for Maui. Busy busy busy.

Today my dad scared the crap outta me. My parents had called and left messages on our home phone; I missed a call or two from them on my cell. I'm inept when it comes to remembering how to retrieve our voicemail messages on our home phone, so I didn't know what was going on. When we got back from Saturday Market, I called them back. My dad answered the phone, which is odd because 99% of the time, my mom answers. When I asked how he was doing, he said, "Things are not well here." My heart dropped and my brain started racing, imagining all the things that could be wrong. But he quickly put me at ease with a comment about how his computer had died. Ninety minutes later, my tech support session was over, we had located most of his backup files, and he had his e-mail password reset so he could get back into it. I used a nifty, free tool (which was simple enough for even my dad to find and install) to see and control his desktop. Yuuguu works with both Mac and PC.

Back to work tomorrow for me. Marc will be entertaining the band alone. And on that note, I should be thinking about getting to bed.

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Planning ahead...

I've found the perfect Secret Santa gift.

Click me.