Day Trip: Finishing Highway 101 in Washington State

 Raymond, WA: Wild Man Brewing Company

South Bend, WA: Pacific County Courthouse

Seaview, WA: Cape Disappointment

Willapa National Wildlife Refuge

Longview, WA: Lake Sacajawea Park

Birthdays!

I'm rich ❤

Blue-Haired Old Lady

I spent my day off mostly in bed, gobbling pills and Halls Breezers, trying to stave off illness, but I did a few other things as well.

1. Took a bath. "I'll be your candle in the bathtub...."

2. Shopped for flights. Found a good one. Talked to Hubby. BOUGHT TICKETS! San Diego in January, baby!! 

(Yes, I know this says December 2)

3. Got sick of my hair. Drove to Walgreens. Bought hair color. DYED MY HAIR BLUE.

What a big dang mess it made! 

But I love it.

10/12/2020

Today's lunchtime "shoes on porch" pic

My blizzard-making baby

Sellllllfieeeeeee

Breakfast with Chantell

The place: Breakfast at Valerie's

The time: today around 9 am

Chantell is my friend and former bonnet shop co-worker, whom I hadn't seen since before the pandemic started. We had a great time - lots of laughing and reminiscing. After recovering from, simultaneously, a cancer diagnosis and being fired from the shop, she's working from home at a cushy job and doing quite well. Maybe her boss will hire me next. 

We joked about Boss Lady's beloved Pope t-shirt being the shirt she wore while firing Tami last month, and that I'll have to buy one to wear when I quit*. Good times.

After breakfast: there was playing with Baby R, then shopping at Target (new tank top and fleece lined tights for the olive green polka dot skirt) and WinCo (stuff for Sunday dinner and R's continued recovery from oral surgery AND a cold).

*hypothetically speaking, of course

Vernonia Trip

After taking Bella to Katie's for D&D and getting the oil changed, we were off to Vernonia, Oregon. I've been wanting to see the town for a long time, and today became the day. 

Impressions: a tiny, cute downtown with a few restaurants to try; more people smoking cigarettes than I've seen in a long time (I think it's funny that I'm so unused to seeing people smoke that this was something worth mentioning); hardly any public restrooms; one supermarket, currently charging $6.59 for a package of Halloween Oreos. WHAT IN THE FREAKIN HECK. We want to try out the Banks-Vernonia Trail, possibly with our bikes.

Bunny in front of the town engine:

Crossing Rock Creek while walking through town:

Looking at our road atlas, we saw that we could finish part of Highway 47 if we took it all the way to its northern terminus in Clatskanie, so we went that way. We are slaves to the atlas.

Some old growth forest

A lovely autumn bend in the road

At this point of the trip, I was having quite a great time being with Hubby in this beautiful setting, and the lyric "You fill up my senses like a night in the forest*" popped into my head, where it stayed for the next two hours. Except, my brain being 12 years old and addicted to Weird Al, it kept changing the lyrics. Eventually Hubby got sick of my singing another new set of lyrics and turned on the radio, which led me to start texting them to him instead:

After reaching Clatskanie, where we said we would be okay living someday, we took Highway 30 east and South through Rainier and vicinity. We took a peek at the Columbia County Courthouse in Saint Helens (Hubby once testified for a case there) and got McDonald's for "linner" in Scappoose.

Then, before heading home, we colored in more highways and made plans for next week's jaunt.

*Annie's Song by John Denver

At Loose Ends

The day began innocently enough. It stretched out before me like an endless-seeming pile of light blue double-pom wool bonnets which needed their ends sewn:

After work, Hubby took R and me out to eat at The Old Spaghetti Factory and visit H. Hubby checks out his phone; H, in the red mask, is on the left:

R is still hurting from her wisdom teeth extraction and could only eat certain foods (I just have a pleasantly full face):

And so the day ended happily, with me eating my feelings. 

R's Wisdom Teeth

Her surgery went well - her teeth "slipped out easily", the nurse said. She had to go in by herself because of the pandemic. She was scared, especially of the IV, but she did great.

She's high as a kite here...

Home and in great pain here:

We took video of her first few minutes of being in the car with us on the way home. Everything was funny and she was quite giggly. Once home, we drugged her up and fed her chocolate pudding, and she went to sleep.

Tonight I did a new thing: I purchased an item from Facebook Marketplace. These are vintage Doc Martens and I'm in love. LOVE.

Down the Gorge

Black Cat Bonnets

It was decided (by their mama and me, as I was sewing the ends of these black kitty bonnets today) that the granddaughters will be kitties for Halloween this year. I reserved two of these in different sizes. SO cute! I wonder if Baby C's little newborn head will drown in her 0-3 bonnet like her sister's did. 

I also sewed gray floral bear ears onto top panels today, something I learned to do on Friday. Grrrrr! Not even Yvonne or Vivian like that task. Sewing these bonnets is challenging sometimes, but the garbage is pretty:

It was a fun day at work. Rachel made us Zumba with her again. Barbara brought chocolate cake. Nick and I chatted about movies. He brought more plums from his tree.

At home: me and my old man. I'm exhausted tonight. My body is sick and tired of processing smoke in the air. We desperately need rain, but it's mid-September and usually it doesn't start in earnest till November.

(so attractive)

I make it a point to keep my shorts and sandals available to wear until Halloween. That's how solid our September/October sunshine is. Again, usually. We've had a few crappy falls.

Cheese

Labor Day 2020

I'm laboring to grow out my bangs. Why does it take so dang long??!!?

Day Trip!

Hubby and I decided to get the heck outta town today. The kids were of course invited, but we were happy to get away together.

All the supplies: snacks, atlas, chargers, FUN shoes (the shoes for when we go to have outside fun somewhere)

Sherlock is having transmission issues, so we rented a car.

Cut My Nails Off

I've been growing them for a while and they look nice, but they distract me all the time. I just wanted a picture before I chopped them off.

Bella's Surgery