Mr. DeeJay

Dear Sir Rod Stewart.
I have been in love with  you and your music since I was about 12 years-old.  A neighbor gave me a stack of records for my brand new little record player in 1976.  One of those small records was "Maggie May" and as you said in the show it was played and here you are.  Well I played it and was forever in love.
So you are on tour and I had the opportunity to buy tickets and could afford the ones in the grass.  And while I would much more enjoy the show from the seating area...I will take being able to see my all time favorite performer from the grass.  Thank goodness for those screens we could watch from.
Ms. Cyndi Lauper came on and did her show.  When she just started "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", my granddaughter (who is 8 years-old), who I had brought with, figured out who she was and got excited. We so enjoyed her performance and I considered it a bonus.
And then you were on stage.  And I loved it.  My heart was happy.  I loved the stories, like you being knighted and your nod to your little brother.  I fell in love with your music first, but I remember when I discovered that you had a grand sense of humor and made me wish I knew you in person....just to laugh.
After the show on the drive home I asked my granddaughter who she liked better, already knowing the answer.  Naturally she said Cyndi Lauper and what a great role model she is for a young girl.  But then she said she really really liked when you sang Mr. DJ.  She may have missed the title of the song but she got it.  And so you are still gaining young fans.
Thank you for sharing all your passion, your music and of yourself to us in the audience.  I loved the show and am more than appreciative of being able to see you in concert. Sing on.
Light and love.

Procrastination

I have gotten better over the years.  But sometimes I am still a procrastinator.  So when we camped at Cape Disappointment back in May, we made smores.  The little woman was using her sleeping bag as a blanket and she dropped a smore on it.  She didn't say anything, she just took her sleeping bag to bed.  Well that smore got all over my sleeping bag also that night. 
The little woman has had a couple of sleepover type things with the girl scouts this summer and needed her sleeping bag.  Her bag is small and I was able to just wash it in our machine.  Mine, on the other hand, is a big one and needs to go to the laundromat and put in one of the big machines.  My next camp out was Fourth of July at the island and I had procrastinated long enough that it wasn't usable for that trip.  We used blankets.  We were a little cold.
So tomorrow is camping again at the island and the weather is moving more towards fall.  So I really needed to go to the laundromat.  I have only procrastinated for three months.  Well the machine took $6.25.  I had brought enough small bills to get enough quarters.  And we did that.  But the machines now take credit cards also, so I must remember that in the future. 
My bag is clean and ready for camping on the island and again at Grayland State Park. 

An Abscess

The second trip to the vet actually got us to a vet.  She told us she would have done the exact same things we did.  It looked better and we would opt not to go to the vet.  It would look worse and we would wait and see and it would look better. Well when we got home yesterday the lump was much bigger and bleeding.  I couldn't figure out where the blood came from.
And so we went.  They shaved her face and poked her with a needle to see if it was an abscess.  And it was.  So she is on antibiotics.  That will work or the abscess will rupture in time.  So now she has a oozing face.  The little woman keeps trying to take care of her and keep her clean.  I'm just making sure she gets her meds.  Antibiotics and pain pills.  It looks pretty bad. 
We were excited to have a woman vet.  I pointed that fact out to the little woman.  She loves animals and I want her to see strong woman doing great jobs. 

Running Start Open House

I worked the Running Start Open House today.  I worked one other time and it was slow.  There was another event scheduled for the same time that day.  Well today was not slow.  We helped a lot of people learn about the bookstore and find books.  Some were buying and some were just looking and then going home to see if they could get them cheaper.  We gave them all of our tips.
I would call it a huge success.

Side note.  Our teachers are striking.  My littles were so excited to be going back to school.  I'm sure there are older kids who are ecstatic to have more days added to their summer vacation.  Mine are just ready to go back.  And so they are disappointed.  Here is hoping the strike doesn't last long.

Welcome Back Night

Welcome back to school night got bumped to this week.  They are installing new floors at the school.  Not done yet, but enough that we could still come for the activities.  The littles received fudge bars when we got there.  We were in a long line to find out their teachers when someone pointed out the little line for our place in the alphabet.  Once we had the names and classroom numbers we went in search of them. 
The little man knows many kids in his class.  He seemed perfectly fine with his class assignment. He saw Sasha.  Sasha's mom did not know that Sasha had/has a big crush on my little man.  And the teacher sat them right next to each other.  Bet that changes soon.
The little woman knows kids in her class.  She was disappointed that one girl was not in her class.  She heard Angelique moved, but I thought I heard she was in a different class.  Time will tell.  If she is still there they will see each other at lunch.  She has a couple of girl scouts in her class.  She told her teacher she is going to try really hard to be good.  Here is hoping she has a fabulous third grade.  It's going to be harder and more work.  She can do it. 
We picked up a couple math challenge papers.  The little man and I already did one, but we will do it again so that he can see how we figured it out.  If they take the challenges back on the first day of school they will receive a prize. 

She's Home

The little woman had so much fun.  I think it took her almost as long to tell me about it as it did to do it.  There were so many activities packed into her girl scout camp out.  They worked on a science badge. So they made slime, ice cream, studied density, made film container rockets, etc.  They helped clean up the beach and studied sea anemones.  They worked on kindness and cooking. 
I had noticed her off by herself in some of the pictures.  I asked her about it and she said sometimes she just needed a little time by herself.  Ohhhh I have an introvert.  One of those people who need to be by themselves once in awhile to recharge.  She keeps showing how she is more like Papa and me all the time.  I don't know if that is good or bad, but it is what it is. 
I missed her and I am so glad she had a really good time. 

Our Day

The little man commented the other day about it being a long time since we rode MAX.  May of last year to be accurate.  So we made a plan that when Sissy was on her girl scout camp out we would ride MAX to downtown Portland and poke around a bit. 
Today was the day and he woke me up telling me it was ride the MAX day. We got up and had some coffee/breakfast.  The little man has been all about NIKE lately.  And so spur of the moment I asked him if he wanted to also hit the NIKE store while we were down there.  It is about 13 blocks from the fountain and The Saturday Market.  We looked it up and we could ride MAX there from the fountain. He was all for it.
We got to the park and ride and rode MAX downtown.  We poked around in the Saturday Market a bit.  He found a snake he just loved so we got it.  He played in the fountain and loved it.  We saw a man with a NIKE bag and it was so cool.  It had neon yellow handles.  We had lunch watching boats on the river and neither of us was in any hurry.  We listened to street performers and passed out some of the gold dollars I got back in change from MAX.  And then he asked if it was time to go to the NIKE store.
We walked in the NIKE store and it is very nice and modern and upbeat.  They had activities going on for back to school.  The little man ended up getting a caricature done.  We first looked at the shoes.  Um.  No.  I won't say never, but I don't intend to buy shoes at the NIKE store ever.  They are expensive.  Now granted there were a few I had not seen elsewhere and they were pretty cool.  But I'm not spending $100 on a pair of shoes for a six year-old.  Then we tried to find some hats.  They were out of youth baseball hats.  The person helping us suggested we check the hat store across the street.  We didn't.  We found a cool t-shirt that he liked for $20.  Now normally I don't spend $20 for a t-shirt, but I understand.  It is a NIKE one and we did buy it at the NIKE store.  And we had to buy something to get that cool bag.  Well when we went up to pay because we bought something out of the youth section we got a goody bag.  It was a pencil bag with pencils, eraser, Nike patches for backpacks and a key ring.  Now how cool was that.  So while the frugal side of me was cringing at the price of the shoes, the frugal side of me says we got more than $20 worth of enjoyment out of our experience at the NIKE store. 
Then we walked a block and hopped MAX back to the car.  He fell asleep on the way home.  I got a nap once we were home and he went to play with a friend.  And now we are eating Thai food.  A superb "our day".