Open Mic at the Electric Bean

I went to Longview and Greg and I walked the lake.  It was a beautiful night for it and we saw the sunset.  Gorgeously pink.  Afterwards we headed over to the Electric Bean for Open Mic night.  The Electric Bean is a non-profit coffee house.  All the employees are volunteers learning job skills.  What a great concept.  Greg got coffee and I got a smoothie and we enjoyed some music.  All performers did two to four songs.  Most were pretty good.  There was one that was not all that good, but you have to hand him kudos for getting up there and doing his thing.  We are going to go again next Friday when there is a blues guy named Cody performing.  Heard he is really good.
After the music ended we ended up at Applebee's for a bite to eat.  I tried their shrimp broccoli cavatappi.  It's on the good for you side of the menu.  And it was pretty tasty.
Thanks Greg for a lovely evening sans children.  

Clean Happy

I got my car back and it is clean.  I'm sure it won't stay that way long.  I had to wait on Josh since Mike had left already.  He rode over with us and then drove Mom's car back.  My intention had been to walk it again, but no one was available to watch the littles.
After we got back to mom's I discovered I was missing a piece out of my trunk.  So we had to go back and get it.  At least it was only three miles away.
It is clean clean clean and I am happy happy happy.

Gold Chain

I decided not to wait to give Mike Dave's gold chain.  Put my money where my mouth is.  If I say his stuff is his to do with what he wants then that is so.  And I also don't get to say well he can't have it because he might sell it.  I don't want to be the pot calling the kettle black.  Mike's face lit up with pure joy and he immediately put it on.  And it hasn't come off since.
Now as it turns out right after I gave it to him I had a reason to go to the gold buyers place.  I had some broken earrings that really did no good just sitting around.  I got $30 and learned some things.  The chain that Mike has is a replacement chain and not nearly worth what the original was.  Mike was surprised.  The original was bought with a gift card that was a bonus from work for Dave.  It was a very nice chain.  The replacement while nice is only 10kt.  and would only fetch about $100 from the gold buyer.
Since I am sure the wedding ring will not turn up I have another chain for Connor when he gets older.  And Audrie gets my wedding ring.  Assuming that everything is still with me when they get older.

Tivo

So the back story is when I moved I had tremendous amounts of fun getting the internet/cable tv/tivo set up and working.  Part of the issue was figuring out which was the working cable outlet.  But I did it.  And then Comcast kept sending me cable boxes.  I kept taking them back telling them I don't need it.  Finally someone told me I needed something from them that makes the cable tv work.  So they gave me my OWN m-card for the TIVO box.  Well after all the hassle the first time around there was no way I was messing with a set up that worked. So my m-card stayed in my trunk all this time.
Jump forward.....Brought all the stuff in from the car since it went to the detailers.  Then today I turned on the TV intending to go to netflix, but I was slow so I actually caught an error message.  Seems I don't have any authorized channels on TV.  Wait...what?  Took me an hour on chat just to find out that the old m-card was no longer any good.  Dave must not have cable TV anymore.  So we set about activating MY m-card which I happened to know where it was.  Got it working and then Audrie wanted netflix.  Oy.  Now the network didn't work.  Oy. Oy. Oy.  Called TIVO and we had it all going in about five minutes.  Funny how TIVO is always quick and Comcast is always slow.  Now granted I should have just switched the cards out first and tried it, but I didn't.  So lesson learned.                                                                                  

Back To Wenatchee....NOT

It really did not hurt my feelings to not have to drive back to Wenatchee on  Friday.  We were all set to do it and we didn't mind doing it.  But it is a long drive in a mini with two littles.  So Mike got the option to spend a couple days with a friend of his from Wenatchee and she would take him back.  Yay for me.
It has been a grand two weeks.  Mike never got antsy.  He took care of his kids.  He cleaned up after himself.  He made the littles clean up after themselves.  He got them doing all kinds of stuff that they needed to be doing.  The whole time I'm like..wait...what?  How is this possible and why wasn't I doing that.  ;P
The littles loved having their daddy around.  They loved cuddling on the couch with him or in the chair with him.  They just loved being with him.

Birthday Present

I told Mom I wanted my car detailed for my birthday. Now that is a pretty extravagant present I asked for.  I had checked into it at a place in Hazel Dell and it was on special for $150.  Mom agreed to it since I was so cheap for Christmas the last two years.  A mini shopvac last year and a stick blender the year before.
Thought I should take care of it while Mike was here.  I wasn't sure how long it takes or how it works.  So I made a couple of calls.  I really liked Charlie at VIP detailing.  So today I dropped off my car and Mike got to pick up the littles from daycare.  I then walked from Dollar's Corner to Mom's house to borrow her car.  I won't get mine back until Wed.  I could have it back tomorrow but since I don't have a heater or fans to dry it out they are going to do it over night tomorrow night.
The best part if they are only charging a hundred bucks for the detailing and then an extra ten to dry it out.  Mom was happy.   I'm going to be happy happy.  Five years of little kids in the car have taken their toll.
Happy birthday to me.  Thanks Mom.

Family Gathering

It was again time for family dinner.  Tonight it was chicken enchiladas.  It was a hit.  Even Mom liked it and I had my doubts.  She was already commenting on never having had them before and how she eats shredded beef enchiladas.
It was Mike's first foray into this.  He took care of the kids and they behaved pretty well.
I brought more pictures for Tanya from her childhood.  Still have to finish going through the box.  I'm sure she doesn't mind getting a handful at a time.  ;P  Trying to balance how many I give her of her dad and still keep some for Mike and the littles.
Made arrangements for Elizabeth to babysit for me if Mike has to stay in Wenatchee on Friday.  Always good to have a back up plan.