Dating, Drinks, and Dudes

It seems all my weekly activities are packed into the weekend!

Friday met bestie for drinks at The Office.  Wound up having a mojito, a "Spank the Monkey" martini (which had vanilla vodka, chocolate and banana liquer), and topped it off with seafood fondue - yum!!!

Texted a whole bunch with new Beach Guy. Lives in Lincoln City and is just, as they said in the '20's, the "bees knees."  Saturday morning we talked for over 3 hours. Easy conversation, he's intelligent, funny, successful business owner, and I'm getting a good vibe from him.

Saturday night I had a date with Car Guy. We went out a few times two years ago. He basically disappeared then came back texting me every so often, which I ignored. He finally wore me down and I gave in to a date as friends.

We went to Hillsboro for Mongolian grill. Not my cup of tea as I'd rather be served. Afterward drove the countryside then stopped for an ice cream cone. All the while fending off sexual innuendos from him. Date was finally over at which time the point has to be reiterated that we were just friends.

After date, picked up Sam and his buddy Jacob to sing karoke at the bar where my coworker is the host. Ran into another coworker so it was a fun night. Stayed til 1am which meant I didn't fall asleep til 3am. Too late for this girl.

Slept in this morning than relaxed most of the day until 230 when I went to the river with Sam and Jacob. Tons of people there but we found a good spot. The water felt so good although it was a task to find the deep pools it was so shallow.  Thought a sunburn had hit me after 2 hours but this morning it was all tan.

Here's to a new week! Counting down the days until I'm on vacation starting Friday afternoon!!

Is It Friday Yet?

Friend Marie and I hit the free concert at the lake again tonight. It was kind of a mix between jazzy blues and standard favorites. We wandered around the vendors, mainly to get our names in the free raffle.  Lots of people watching to be had at the concert.

Facebook always has these quizzes or goofy pics you can create. Here are a couple I recently did that are too funny. So happy I was born a woman as those men pics are pretty scary!!

And did you know what? Tomorrow is Friday!!!

Clay and Curls

That meet and greet that was supposed to happen yesterday was a bust. I had texted the dude to find out his last name. And he never responded. WTF? Good riddance if you can't answer a reasonable question like that!!

On my way home from town yesterday I stopped off by the minit mart to perform a stealthy, incognito move. Every day I drive by a beautiful lilac tree with gorgeous, eggplant purple blossoms. Finally decided to pack scissors in my car so I could swipe a few. Tree is by the parking lot, not by someone's personal garden, so why not? Yes, I'm justifying my thievery.

I pulled up, grabbed my scissors, left the car running, and clipped a bouquet. Zipped home, placed them in a mason jar vase and voila!! Fragrant beauty enveloping the living room.

Yesterday was also spent crafting polymer clay.  Have you seen those black and white pics with a splash of color? Wanted to try that effect in polymer clay.  Spent quite a bit of time building a wire apparatus of a girl then covered it with gray clay. Made a red umbrella for her to hold. It was a windy scene so her hair was blowing and the umbrella was turned inside out.

Set the oven to 275 degrees then placed the girl and umbrella in to cook. Went to check on it and gasp! The sculpture was melted and all that was left was some gray wire. So disappointed! Will definitely give it another try as it held much promise.

Lazed around this morning then finally decided to be productive and mow the yard. At noon. In the heat. But got both front and back yards done in between frequent water breaks.

Done with the sweat fest, colored my roots then took a shower. Did minimal makeup, added curl cream then diffuse dried about 80% of my hair. No curling iron, no straightening - just let it go for the day. My hair has this natural half curl/half wave thing going on which makes it a bit wild. In a perfect world it would be a head full of perfect spiral curls but that's never been and never will be. When it dries naturally, it's a cross between the curls from a standard poodle's ass mixed with clearance Christmas burlap ribbon with frayed edges. Tight!! 😲

Now it's 8:30 pm and the countdown is on to Monday. Oh weekend why do you leave me so quickly?

Lake Days in the Sun

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me want to be outside!

Tuesday after work Marie and I hit Lake Sacajawea to fish. We started on one dock in the shade but found out it was, well, in the shade. Too windy and cold so we moved over to the sunny side of the lake.

Fished awhile but no bites.😕 Not that I would keep anything caught from that lake.  Strikes me as a big slough but it was fun casting.

Thursday Marie, her friend Michelle and I returned to the lake for the free summer concert. It was packed! My new $1 chair on board along with a fleece pullover, we settled in to listen to Eagle Eyes, an Eagles tribute band. They were surprisingly similiar to the original band.

I kind of got a community warm fuzzy as we sat there with the crowd on the grass, bonding over 70's and 80's hits. Had never been to one of the free concerts before but it really impressed me that this was offered - at no charge - in our community. Almost felt like we were in Vancouver or Portland.  Had a great time but definitely needed that jacket when the sun began to set.

Had my half-day Friday at work then arrived home to nurse my painful knee. Have never had problems with it before so did ice, elevation, and ibuprofen to get it back in order.  Hopefully it will be gone in time for me to have another meet-n-greet tomorrow morning at the lake to walk our dogs. On-line dating is such a hit or miss. It may not get me a boyfriend but at least it keeps me entertained!

Humid Heat and Happenings!

This weekend was a hot one! Literally!! In the 90's so it reminded me how blessed I am to have the utmost, truly spectacular, and downright life saving air conditioning in my home !!

Thursday I came home and had a burst of energy! I made some pasta salad, cleaned the kitchen, did a load of laundry, and even trimmed and bathed the dog.  Well that evening a wave of cramps and nausea hit me head on. Spent some time in the bathroom hoping to not have it come out of both ends. Have you ever gone to the bathroom so violently that it made you temporarily deaf? Me neither but that's what happened. But happily no barfing came to visit. Once finished with the commode I made my way right to bed and felt much better Friday morning. I'll remember this the next time I try to tackle too many tasks on my to do list.

Friday after work I met friend Susan for lunch. I got to hear all about her recent trip to New Orleans - Bourbon Street, beignets , and cemeteries. Always good catching up with her.

After lunch I ran home, changed my clothes, and drove up with friend Marie to the South Lewis County Park in Toledo. It was a picturesque lake with fishing docks and a place to swim as well. And it was really hot. We fished for a while off the bank then moved over to one of the docks. There was hardly anybody there and no one was even swimming. We spent about three hours trying our luck but not one bite. Marie did gather up some clams to take home for her tank. Heat was so high you could have called me done, stuck a fork in my sunburned shoulders, and heard me squeal like Ned Beatty in Deliverance. 🐷

Saturday morning I was up bright and early to meet co-worker Pam in La Center. We were meeting up to tackle the La Center City garage sale. We met at 8 a.m. and went through a ton of garage sales before finishing around noon.

One of the best sales was a church which had shoes and clothes for a dollar a bag.  Pam and I shared a big kitchen garbage bag and stuffed it's plastic to the rafters.  Hmm is this my color? Will this fit? Would one of the kids like this? Who cares - throw it in the bag! Fifty cents a piece and we made out like bandits. 

I also picked up a a chicken wire table type item for three bucks. Wasn't sure what I was going to do with it but knew I just had to do something. Found along the way a cute sailboat lamp, a folding camp chair in great condition for $1, and an absolutely fabulous wok - for free!

There were so many garage sales and it was getting warmer and warmer. Pretty nice neighborhoods so some of the sales were reasonable and some way off-base. I mean, it's nearing a hundred degrees and you want to sell me  a  Christmas Village  for $1,500 ?  Or shirts for $10 ? After the dollar a bag deal we weren't falling for that kind of price wonkiness!

This Sunday morning I woke up at 5am to get ready to go fishing on the river.  It was already getting warm when we got there;  we stayed about three hours with no bites. Decided to give up and pack it in. Fishing is kind of like selling - with every no you're bound to get a yes sooner or later.

After fishing I stopped off at Walmart to get a spark plug for the lawn mower. For some strange reason I thought today would be a good day to mow the yard in close to a hundred degree weather. Good thing I came to my senses and took a short nap when I got home. 

Waking up I decided hit Michaels and Home Depot to meditate on what I wanted to do with the chicken wire table. Almost bought a metal platter to attach as the top for the table; however it wasn't on sale so I made my way to Home Depot.

Felt like I spent an hour in store browsing through the aisles. Did I want a wood top? Did I want tile? Did I want metal? If tile what color? The ruminating over the choice of top was agonizing.

I finally picked up some connected glass tiles in shades of  mocha, seafoam green, and light teal. Table was already washed and dried in the sun. I painted the very top sides of the tabletop, applied grout and pressed the tiles into place after trimming them. It's actually coming together well and ties in to the beach theme of my house. Yesterday I painted the sailboat lamp I picked up and it's all going to work together perfectly.

And now tomorrow is Monday and it will be time to .....sleep in! Yep I already have vacation to burn so I took tomorrow off just cuz. 

Let's have a great week!!

Silver Lake, Singing, and Shamrock

This weekend was filled with mother/son bonding!

Saturday morning Sam and I went to Epic used movie and games store to browse.  Finished with that I dropped Sam off then picked up a few items at Walmart. I have been craving  cantaloupe  so indulged the urge  and picked up  both that and honeydew melon.

Around 1:30 I met Jordan and Candy at Silver Lake to go fishing. Turned out to be blue sky, hot and sunny. We fished from the dock with worms. Candy caught a few small ones, I reeled in a trout and a sunfish, and Jordan hooked a monster carp along with a trout. We had a great time enjoying the sun and sharing each other's company.

Came home from fishing and Sam stopped by to talk me into going out. After getting cleaned up we went over to the bowling alley and played one game. Hadn't bowled in years but enjoyed attempting to avoid gutterballs.

After bowling Sam had a mad itch to sing karaoke. First stop was Triangle Tavern but it was so crowded we cruised right on by. He wanted to stop at Canton, which was previously a real dive bar at a downtown Chinese restaurant.  I hadn't been there in decades as we thought of it as the cockroach palace.

When we arrived to the bar we saw it was under new ownership with a different name. We walked up to go in and an outdoor sign said karaoke was only on Sunday and Monday. As we talked about going elsewhere, the DJ, who was out front, said he would do karaoke for us. The DJ looked familiar and it's because only that day he had friended me on Facebook. So unusual to have run into him the same day.

Sam and I went in and we were the only customers in the bar. Apparently everyone was over at Rainier Days so downtown Longview was a ghost town. Sam and I each sang a few songs then the female bartender got into the game. It ended up being duet night with Sam and Marlee, the bartender, singing their hearts out. We ended up spending the rest of the evening until after midnight with the place to ourselves while the DJ played duet after duet songs from Disney to Evanescence.

I ended up going to bed about 2 a.m. . Slept in this morning then Sam and I went out for breakfast. Our first stop was Tim's Tavern, which I had heard served a cheap but delicious breakfast. We arrived about 11:45 a.m., sat down and waited for the waitress. She brought us menus then returned to take our order. When we tried to order breakfast, she said it was only served until noon. Looking at our phones it was only 12:01 and we had certainly arrived before noon. Could not believe their customer service that we couldn't order breakfast at that point so we left and went elsewhere.

We wound up at the Shamrock Tavern where we ordered lunch. Excellent meal and super customer service as opposed to the 12:01 BS at Tim's.

Although I had high hopes to mow the yard today I ended up watching movies and napping. Had picked up the Lucille Ball version of Mame yesterday at Epics so watched that today. Didn't shower and didn't even brush my teeth today so that sums up my day.

Decoding Dreams

Rarely do dreams come my way but last night I had a doozy! Actually, it was this morning. I had woken up about 4:30 then fell back asleep and this is when my dream occurred.

It was around the holiday season, the boys were little and it had snowed - in the house. And I accepted this as if it were perfectly normal. At some point sisters Luna and Erin stopped by because we were all going to ride floaties down the river to Seaside. Uh, in the snow?

Well apparently outside it was summer. My dream hopped over to the Cowlitz River (which doesn't lead to Seaside but that's beside the point) where we were admist a ton of people floating on the swift current. It was moving very fast and I was holding on tight. Sam and Jordan, about age 6/7, were speedily zipping through the water and I was stressed because they were not wearing life jackets. My niece Maressa, at about 12, was there watching them.

At some point I arrived at a waiting point where I laid down on a beach recliner. Looked over and saw a friend and previous neighbor. Said hi and tried to strike up a conversation but she ignored me. 

Finally my sisters and the boys showed up. I gave Erin a hug then gave Luna a really long hug and started crying. At that point I woke up.

It was definitely a weird dream where you wake up and think it actually happened.  Just starting my second cup of coffee which has helped to shake the feeling of that dream.

Bestie, Bills, and Budget

Ahhhh another July 4th in the books!

Spent my day hanging with my bestie eating a variety of salads, watching movies, and catching up with each other. This of course involved laughing, deep discussions  ranting, venting, and a few tears on my part. Sometimes it's hard to be a single gal and I had a little pity party for myself but that's okay.  Was also battling a hellacious headache so popped my last resort - a Midol - to kick it. This meant Lynn had to hear me snoring as I took a wee nap while I was there. 😉😪 Thankfully that little pill did the trick and I woke up headache free!!  Or perhaps it was the Kahlua I was drinking that kissed my pain away? 🍸

Today my employer was nice enough to let everyone come in to work at 10am due to the holiday. The downside was it felt like we had two Mondays. 

After work I sat down and worked up a budget. Ugh. I make far less than I did before but thankfully was able to modify my mortgage payment so sat down and sifted through my bills. Such a good time that was -NOT! But I'm on the right track.

And tomorrow is half-day Friday!!! Here's to every one having a kick ass weekend!!