Here Ya Go, Mark!

OK, so it's been officially 2 weeks since my last blog. So? What's new? But due to a certain family member in Utah whining and complaining I guess I'll jot down a few highlights of the last couple weeks. When I neglect to blog often it's due to the same thing - very busy and nothing noteworthy enough to blog. Right now is no exception. So I'll create a quick recap of the most blogworthy events of the last 2 weeks.

Life with Rick

You all saw the last blog - the big mess? Well, that kept me busy for a while. It only took that first week to get things straightened out enough to walk around and be able to find things. The job is not done by any means, but at least I got that much accomplished. Now we need to get back to organizing the shop so the excess stuff from the house can move out there. Rick has gotten parts of that cleaned up as well but mostly on "his" side of it, the side where his Harley and tool bench will reside.

Last weekend we finally dusted off that aforementioned Harley and took it for a spin down to Chehalis. We had to visit his cousin's miniature donkey farm since a new baby had just been born that Monday. He had a scenic and leisurely route all planned out that avoided the freeway and the weather was perfect for it - 80's. Unfortunately for us it was also the opportune route headed south (towards Portland) for about 10,000 bicycles in the annual Seattle-to-Portland (aka STP) run. After sitting in the traffic in a tiny podunk town for an hour because the bikes would block traffic we hit the freeway after all.

Our visit to Melinda's "White Hawk Farms" was everything we'd hoped, and then some. The baby was cuter than imagined, dinner was splendid and we even helped her out with a chore - scooping the poop from the pasture, she's quite the fastidious rancher! It was great though, really. I got to drive the John Deere "Gator" which is a mini 4WD dump truck while Rick and Melinda scooped the poop. Her 2 new border collie pups were constantly in the way, trying to "herd" the Gator, they're real cuties.

While visiting Melinda the subject of her website came up (as it usually does) and we decided that I would build it for her since it seemed that it was beyond Melinda's ability and time frame. So that's what's keeping me busy this week. Check it out - http://www.whitehawkfarms.com.

That new job came on the heels of 2 new (to us) computers that Rick picked up last weekend. He found them on Craigslist and bought his and her 'puters for $130. Dell 2.4GHz, 2GB of ram (which we immediately upgraded to 3GB) GeForce FX 5200 video cards. Not the latest and the greatest but better than either of us previously had. We went to our favorite puter store, Infotech, and bought some goodies to add. I had to have my 2 monitors which required a digital cable. I also got spoiled by my old puter having a built in card reader so I had to get one of those too. I think Rick is gonna install one in his, the USB and card reader method seems awful slow. We both also got new 500GB hard drives to install. What a couple geeks!

Rach's Life

Everyone knows about Rach's divorce that took place immediately after my wedding. Our trip to South Dakota to swap cars with her ex. Tony's decision to divorce Rach a week before his Grandma died (his real reason for moving back to Cincinnati). Etc, etc. Well, Rach has moved on and has been meeting new people via a website matchmaker. She has also decided to take advantage of the current economic condition and try to purchase a house. Her life has moved forward. Apparently Tony's hasn't. And now that Grandma's gone and he's left only with the family that he doesn't get along with and his closest friend who is still only a friend, he's lonely. He sees that he made multiple mistakes.

While Mark was here visiting for our wedding he grew rather attached to our area and Rach. He feels like she's his little sister. Apparently he and his wife have been thinking about relocating and fell in love with our area. (I guess we did a good job of tour guides!) So he plans to stay with Rach in her new house until he can get settled and then the rest of the family can come out.

So between the dating, the house buying and dealing with a regretful, lonely ex she has quite a plateful. And so much of it is intertwined.

Kevin's life

Apparently Shirley has moved back in with Kevin and when they're together we don't see nearly as much of Kevin as when they're apart. So it's good that they're back under one roof (2 roofs cost $$$) but I can't really say how things are going. Good I hope.

I got to babysit Joe and Shayne for the first time since May. They're doing good. Joe was helpful and Shayne wanted to play with Grandma. They're good boys in spite of their mixed up home life.

Denny's life

The big thing right now in Denny's life is his possible promotion at work. It's been mentioned over the last couple years from time to time but now the boss that wants Denny to replace him is actually planning his big step down. That means a big step up for Denny. He was over the other night voicing his concerns. My main area of suggestions was how he could earn the respect of older men working under him. He needs their respect and that has to be earned. I reminded him that in order to be respected you must be respect-able. Keep himself groomed, keep your cool, don't swear, speak with authority, not meanness.

On the 4th Denny had a big wingding at his place. Among the guests there were his in-laws, Bud and Laurie. At one point during the evening Laurie and I had poor Heather cornered in the kitchen reminding her that Hunter's getting up there and that she could start to think about planning another baby. Well, she didn't take it too hard. I think she thought it was funny, at least I hope she did.

Dane's life

Dane is enjoying the life of the unemployed. He keeps himself busy in spiritual things. Good boy.

One night last week he called at 10:30 (that's never a good thing). He hurt his finger and wondered if I had a splint. So he came over and I used some craft sticks to steady his finger (the splints I had were for that one end knuckle only, it was his middle knuckle that was injured). I texted him a number of times afterward about going to get it looked at. Yep, it's broke. So now it's splinted correctly and wrapped together with the next finger over. Fortunately it's his left hand.

I got a call from a JW sister I was friends with ages ago and knew that she would be calling for Dane. She was and it was about the Regional Building Committee. Apparently Dane put in an application and was to attend an orientation. Cool! I spoke to him a couple years ago about the building work and he wasn't interested. But that was then and this is now. He has moved out and has become more independent. I'm so glad he applied, it'll make him very happy to do that work if he can be used. It'll be a little slice of the new system right now.

Keith's life

Awake from about 3 PM to 3 AM on the computer, chatting, im'ing, playing, surfing and texting on his phone and watching tv. All simultaneously. That's about it.

So, there ya go. I'm right now writing this on my deck, watching the squirrels and birds, listening to the wind blow and the birds sing. But as soon as I'm done it's back to work on the website for Melinda, dishwashing and grocery shopping.

Mark, I hope you're happy now!