Today was an extremely busy one, although I don’t recall doing much. That’s partly because I was mostly a Zombie after the six-hour painting evolution yesterday. This morning I had lots and lots of sore spots and had to take a nap right away after my morning banana.

Then Diane woke me up just before 0800 to remind me that I was supposed to deliver the Buick to the dealer so they could fix the A/C that didn’t work during our trip down south. I did, then I sat there for 3.5 hours until they were done with it. They also changed the oil. Now I’ll tell you how good our local dealer is … the A/C issue was addressed last year, but we never really had days where it was needed, so didn’t realize it was failing until we went to California. This time, they replaced the same part as last year, and covered it under warranty because the first ‘fix’ was done under warranty. I was afraid it would cost us arms and legs to get the Buick back, but all it cost was $40, for the oil change.

Then I went home for a nap, but that didn’t happen because we had to go Scappoose to get Baylee’s birthday cake. She’s 4 years old today. On the way back with the cake, we stopped at our church in Warren to pick up a truck load of boxes, full of quilts, which I must deliver to Portland on Friday. There were six boxes, 25 lbs each, which I carried up the basement stairs, one at a time. Then I went out and changed the church sign to inform everyone that this coming weekend is the Bethany Quilt Show. Wynette is the featured quilter for the show. To be worthy of this honor, she had to finish every quilt she had started since 2002. Jack said she was pretty busy. We got to see one of the quilts – it’s absolutely huge, and beautiful!

After getting all sweaty changing the sign at church, we sent home so I could shower, then we went to Jeff & Heather’s for Baylee’s birthday party. She and her sisters were outside having a great time when we arrived, and Jeff was BBQ-ing hotdogs and burgers. I had a burger and it was great.

The party had a definite Hello Kitty theme, all the way. Here’s Baylee stuffing coins into her new Hello Kitty bank

Baylee showing Jeran one of the coloring books she got.

 The cake …

Blowing out the candle while Gilligan watches …

Gilligan took a break to brush up on her drumming skills …

After the party, we went to the middle school to watch Lydia, and a large part of her class, be inducted into the National Junior Honor Society. On the way, we stopped by the waterfront in downtown St. Helens to make sure the river wasn’t overflowing too much … quite pretty, isn’t it?

About 30 kids were inducted into the Honor Society and each was given a rose which they were supposed to present to the person who most influenced them in their current understanding of citizenship, three other things I can’t remember. When it came to Lydia, she totally blew me away when she walked up to me and gave me the rose. I was speechless which, as most of you know, is not something I normally am.

Here’s the entire crew … all 31 of them.

… and here’s proof that it’s really Lydia, even though the sign is pointing at her Mother …

I guess it’s pointi between them, but it’s still OK …

Then we had a cupcake, a cup of water, and went home. When I took the dogs out back I took a picture of some flowers, just for fun.

Aren’t rhododendrons pretty?

With all the goings on, we were unable to attend Nancy W’s retirement from PGE after about 40 years on the job. I worked in the same group as Nancy for many years and I never knew why because she knew way more than I did about pretty much everything. If you see this, Nancy, forgive me for not making it in. You said I could use the same excuse for not coming that I used when I thought it was last month, but I don’t remember what that excuse was. Anyway, good luck to you. You’re going to love it.