6 posts tagged “canby”

I spent most of yesterday with Sarah.  It was a first for us, we've done things in the past with the "group" or with others, but I don't think we ever just did the two of us before.  I had a blast.  Went over around noon, without any real plans, and ended up having a really good day.  We gabbed alot, learning that we actually have more in common than either of us thought.  Went out to Panera Bread up by the newer shopping center in Tualatin and had a great lunch, bummed around Target for at least an hour, and then did some Scrapbooking that we've both been putting off for ages.  It was a good time.  Good enough that we've set up other "play dates" to do some scrapbooking and maybe work on some other pet projects.  Should be fun.  I need to remember to invite the other "gals" of the "group" to join us.  I'm not really sure if they would or not, but it'd be fun to do more things along those lines.  I'm slowly coming to terms with the idea that I need girl time.  It's a unique concept, but I'm getting acquainted with the idea and lovin' it.

I've had an awesome weekend.  On request from my family, ahem, I spent the entire weekend with Scotty.  It's been an interesting time, we've had a good weekend.  On Saturday we had the rare opportunity to sleep in late, then headed up to town to pick up Thad and head up to the Clackamas Town Center.  I managed to blow $150 on unmentionables, primarily because I really really needed them.  I also picked up two OSU Beavers hoodies for $20 apiece - a great deal considering they're typically $50 each.  Scotty and I also did the Build-A-Bear thing.  It was a blast.  I have this adorable soft, caramel colored bear with a white Beaver's tee named Scooty while he made a monkey with an outdoors hat named Cabby.  If you've never done one of those critters, it's a great experience - and not just for kids.  Like for my bear, you pick out the shell and then stuff it.  Then the worker has you pick out a heart, kiss it to give it heart and do something to give it energy - spin in a circle for the bear or make a noise like a monkey for the other.  It was embarrassing, but a total blast. 

After spending more than four hours dragging the boys from store to store so I could do clothes shopping we ate at the newly opened Ram Brewery at the promenade.  It was great food.  I had very nice steak and fries, Scott did this bacon on bacon burger that was just huge, and Thad even managed to join in on the eating.  Surprise!  We did a sampler of their beer, I really liked their port but Big Red the Buttface were also good.  I'd love to take the Canby gang out for a night there at some point.  It'd be good times.

Then Sunday I woke up way too early for the early morning service at Church.  It was just starting to snow in Canby but by the time we made it up elevation to where the Church is in Oregon City there was easily two inches on the ground.  I even took the initiative to find a shovel and clear the sidewalks at Church.  Of course, when we left it had snowed another inch or so making most of my work a moot point but it was the idea that counted.  Of course, me, being me, I had to tease Scott into coming outside with me for an impromptu snowball fight.  It was great fun!  :)  Due to the snow and the old-people group consensus we decided to forgo the usual breakfast event and head back to town.  Of course, as soon as we got toward the valley floor the snow just disappeared, it was cold, it was wet, but it wasn't snowy.  We had a decent breakfast at Denny's and then we managed to crash for a good hour or so before Baker decided that it was the middle of the afternoon and time for us to wake up.  Yuck!!  I would have liked to sleep longer, among other things, ahem, but we got moving, called Thad, and arranged to go over to Voltron's for a couple of hours to play some M:tG.  It was good times too.  I gave Baker shit about waking me up and interrupting an otherwise perfect afternoon, but we had fun, managed to lost two games - one to a green deck, the other to Scooty's blue deck, trade some cards, and call it good. 

Dropping off Thad back at the apartment so he could go up to town to teach a class on J.W. - don't ask - Scott and I took some time to clean up his apartment.  Doing things like taking out the recycling, picking up a variety of odds and ends, and so on.  We ran out to Freddy's to get basic food stuffs and generally ran errands before coming back to finish cleaning and actually get a chance to eat.  Scott cooked, and when it comes to meat, I can't ask for anything better ;).  We had some great pork and potatoes, watched a little bit of a zombie flick, and called it good.  All in all, it's been a great weekend.  Due to ice and other crappy weather, I'm down here for one more night, and I'm okay with that.  Tonight I can be happy, warm, and safe.  Tomorrow starts a new week, but at least I'm relaxed and ready for it this time.

It is really strange to go to a family reunion that's not your own.  Actually, it'd be really strange to go to a family reunion at all for me, being as neither side of my family ever has one unless someone either gets married or dies.  Sad, but true, and I think I'm expected to be next in line for that so we'll see.  Today, at any rate, I went to a family reunion for Scotty's Grandmother's side of the family.  It was interesting, not bad, honestly, but way different than anything I've ever done before, and slightly uncomfortable for knowing next to no-one and then just the sheer number of people floating around.  All said and done, though, I'm happy that Scotty felt comfortable enough inviting me to tag along.  On the way home, we drove down to see Detroit Lake, which I kept getting a kick out of because to me, Detroit is in Michigan, on the thumb, and it doesn't have a lake.  I love water, I just enjoyed getting a chance to watch the water before we headed back to town.  It was definitely an experience.

Else wise, my weekend was fairly tame by normal standards.  I spent most of Saturday getting stuff done around the house, everything from taking care of the kitty and her needs, to doing laundry, to checking up on some items for work, and so on.  In between chores, I also spent an unbelievable amount of time gaming.  I played probably six hours of Guild Wars, and yes, I was raiding. ;)  Then once I got down to Canby for the evening, ended up playing another two or three hours of Halo 2 with Scott in Campaign mode.  That was a blast.  I'm looking forward to more time of that.  Especially with Halo 3 coming out next month, it'd be nice to make it through 2 again to refresh on the storyline.

This week I've got lots to "look forward" to including: two days of inservices, one for my building, then one district wide complete with hours of useless training, finishing the imaging of the laptops for my building, fixing those two eMacs that still are missing important shortcuts, Spamalot with Whit and Scotty on Wednesday, and whatever else comes up.  It promises to be a really busy week, not sure that I'm looking forward to it, but I'll trudge on through anyways.  

I had an awesome night out with Sarah.  Through Jason we managed to plan an outing to do a girls night out.  Tried to invite the others, but for one reason or another, it turned out to be just the two of us.  So we headed up to Red Robin's and spend the better part of three hours talking about all sorts of things from men and guys in our lives and our friend group, to wanting to do things with the girls more often, to my new job, and so on.  And it was absolutely wonderful and great to do, and now that I have contact information for Sarah, that's going to have to happen more often.  Don't get me wrong, I love the guys, I love being okay doing stuff with the guys, but it is absolutely a blast to have girl time too to talk about some of those topics that just don't work out in a mixed or mostly male group.

Speaking of jobs though, which I think I mentioned, that I did pick up a new job.  I called back and said, basically, yes please.  After going back and forth a few times, I finally got a call back from HR and a job offer officially, for the school district.  So I start Tuesday, and I know where I'm going to be generally, and I'm conflicted between thinking that I'm completely nuts to spend more time in Canby or just happy that someone, finally, anyone, wants me enough to look over some of my short comings in the technology field.  (And I finally have a building again!)  So anyways, this job is a foot in the door, it's not a dream job, but it's a good start and I'm happy for the opportunity. w00t!

Now I'm sitting listening to a silly-super-secret guild meeting about who is getting kicked and why and how things are going to change in the guild.  Next time I listen to Big D and Heathen talk about stuff like this I want a bottle of Vodka and a large blue frozen coke.  What a night!

A week ago I put my digital camera in the car fully planning on getting some photos of the surrounding area to post here and share with my friends back East.  Of course, that didn't quite go as planned.  Yes, the camera made it to the car.  Yes, it had battery life.  No, I never got around to taking any photos.  Go me!  So while running errands today I mentioned to Scott that I had this grandmaster plan with my camera, and explained it.  The next thing I know, he's got the camera and is having a blast taking photos of just about everything within view - me, the inside of the car, the little bit of blue sky that we found, and so on.  My threat to him was that I'd post every single picture that he took here on Vox.  Interestingly enough, I wasn't planning on there actually being that many photos.  So instead, here are the highlights... and I did upload all the photos, they're available here, if you're curious. ;)  A threat's a threat, but I gotta make good on it.

Anyone watch the Super Bowl today?  Was a decent game.  Colts won, final score 29 to 17 I think.  Lots of turnover, that field was absolutely saturated with all the rain coming down.  Watched it at Voltrons with Angie, Gabe, Ike, Ben, and Scotty.  I had a good time, they're a good group.  It's always more fun to watch events like that with friends though anyways.

Maybe the most interesting thing was that both coaches, Bears and Colts alike, are strong Christians.  I don't pay that close of attention to football, sure I have my favorite team - which wasn't either team in the game, and I didn't put all the pieces together until later.  But the tribute that the head coach for the Colts gave in the post-game was well said.  He totally gave tribute to God and it was neat to see faith like that on national broadcast TV, on one of the most watched events of the year.  Way cool.  Off-handedly I wonder how many televisions were abruptly clicked off after that. :P  Americans, as a whole, just don't agree with "freedom of speech" when it comes to God, or faith.  Still, snaps for the guy actually going through with it, well received, well given.