Packed With Friendy Goodness

Had some good adventures today. My best friend and I took this friend on a bye-bye, one of his favorite things....

We met up with this friend:

....played with him for a while and gave him his new Heelys.

Met my dear friend, E, for coffee, scones, the open house of Just For Fun Quilt Shop, and a wonderfully long chat:

Then out with these two lovely folks for lunch and cookies at Bridge City Cafe:

....but when we got there, it was already closed. What???

Here are two disappointed friends, riding the up-escalator of woe:

No Bridge City Cafe cookies for us today.

(Hey Portland, in this light you look a lot like Sacramento.)

We crossed the Willamette and found a new-to-us cookie place

These people are now happy:

These cookies are monsters. The aptly named Slutty Cookie:

Yes, that's an Oreo-stuffed chocolate chip cookie. What a little trollop. And speaking of trollops, check out this old friend, showing itself off on a beautiful sunny afternoon: 

STUPID CLOUD

Later, the three of us went to the theater. Hubby and R watched the new Spiderman movie, while I met up with our dear friend S to see Licorice Pizza...

...which was weird but good. I enjoyed it. Being with S is always fun.

Then it was home, dinner, Rick Steves' Europe and one of those Tom Hanks-produced history shows on CNN. Hubby and I are fans.

Another huge Saturday, all good stuff.

Pulled Through A Keyhole Backwards

Work was great today.

Zoom meeting with shrink.

Had dinner at Panera.

Exhausted, now watching Jeopardy.

Meeting good friends tomorrow.

Fun weekend next week.

This is my four-ku.

The Band Plan

This post's title reminds me of this Sesame Street skit - watch it and think of five-year-old Nat and her little brother BC laughing their guts out. We LOVED this skit. 

The Band Plan: My current (paid!) music gig is sadly temporary, but I've discovered a definite need to perform music, especially during our depressing winters. Today I developed the Band Plan. Here it is:

1. Finish this gig

2. Join these folks and march in a couple of parades 

3. Later this year, start rehearsing regularly with this group

It's this or start drinking! 

Of note: I enjoyed work today - invoices and weird little projects with some textbook appointments on the side. It's turned into an interesting job.

And now: Chad the Cat

Cozy At Home

"Gee, it's good to be back home again."

After a busy morning - dropping Hubby at work, two Sh*pt orders and a grocery stop - I've had a sweet relaxing day at home, just the thing for a rainy January day. 

Rose Bowl Trip - Day Six

I had a whole bunch of coloring to do today. California has quite a few pages in our atlas!

It was a cloudy day to start. Shasta hid from us, but we did get to see these cool trucks that we admired on our way down to Los Angeles. 

Stops included Medford for ice cream, Grants Pass for gas, and a couple of rest areas. 

Between Grants Pass and Roseburg, the rain started to pour. We saw some of the leavings of the big storm we went east to avoid, and felt like we made the right choice. Here's some flooding outside of Eugene.

Now we're home safe and everything is dandy. I shouldn't need another major road trip for at least three weeks....

Rose Bowl Trip - Day Five

It's laundry time in here.

After eating breakfast and packing, we continued north on the 101 and through the city to the Presidio, and found a place to take pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. R found a new friend (to the right of the fire hydrant).

"We make the silly bridge pose"

The bridge surprised me in two ways: it's much smaller than I expected, and there's a beach! Why did it always seem like there was nothing but huge rocks on either side? We enjoyed seeing all the folks cavorting in the sand with their dogs.

After photographing the bridge to death and not catching any glimpses of James Bond and Christopher Walken duking it out, we headed to the wharf and bought souvenirs, then headed to Ghiradelli Square and bought yet more stuff. I decided that eating a Ghiradelli brownie while crossing the Golden Gate Bridge and listening to Jimmy Buffett's "Come Monday" is the ultimate San Francisco experience and will be repeating this ritual the next time we visit (when R takes the Alcatraz tour - date TBD).

We made it to Santa Rosa when we learned that Brookings, where we originally planned to spend the night, was under a flood warning and experiencing some freaky weather. This inspired us to head east and take I-5 home instead of going up the coast - a bummer, as we were hoping to see my little town and complete more of the 101, but we'll just have to come back again, darn it.

We passed The Petrified Forest in Sonoma county and of course had to visit.

We bought more souvenirs and R tried out the "make a cool penny" machine which unfortunately was out of service.

At Williams, we turned north on I-5 and stopped in Redding for some great food at Maxwell's Eatery in old downtown, and settled in at Hampton Inn & Suites. Very comfy. We're all exhausted and ready to go home tomorrow, but it's been a great trip. 

Rose Bowl Trip - Day Four

Good morning. We're all tired.

Today's first item of business: we took B to the airport and hugged him a lot before we said goodbye. It was hard (the car was pretty quiet for a while) but we're excited for him to have a new adventure.

Poor bored R. 

This one is for B

We headed west on the 101 and up the coast, stopping for lunch in Carpinteria. What a view. Each place we stopped, Hubby and I would say, "I could move here." 

We turned north at Buellton to visit the Danish village Solvang. They, like Leavenworth, have a year-round Christmas shop. We stocked up for a God Jule in 2022. 

So many fun shops!

There were bakeries galore but only one was open, and the line to get in was out the door and down the block. No thanks! We want to come back someday, though.

I drove us as far as King City. We located the Safeway, stopped for a dinner/potty break, talked with B, and left again. Hubby took us to our hotel near the San Francisco airport. Our trip continues up the 101 tomorrow. Yay!

Rose Bowl Trip - Day Three

It's hard to believe we did all of this in one day. 

Tournament of Roses Parade 

This float was my favorite, but I enjoyed the bands most of all. One band was made up entirely of musical directors - 280 band teachers from all fifty states and Mexico - and it was AMAZING. Now I want to join all the bands and play all the music.

Rose Bowl

Utah lost, but only barely. It was by far the most exciting game I've ever watched, and such a cool experience just to be there. 

To end our day, we had dinner at El Cholo in downtown Los Angeles with K, S, L and T, then drove back to the hotel and fell asleep in about six minutes.

So many great memories made today - what a happy first day of the year!