GO San Francisco....................

Tomorrow night......................

A PERFECT Evening - So Far...............

We started watching the game before going to dinner at an amazing Spanish Restaurant, Tribol, that serves food that you would never see on a typical menu. We're home now at the bottom of the 9th Inning and........................ hey, the Giants are AHEAD 4-0 !

Life is good...................

Well, Golly.... Those Texas Boys Finally Won A Game

Well, it's only right that S.F. gives one game to the Texas boys.

We started watching the game at home and finished at Cheryl's house where we were invited for dinner.

We enjoyed meeting Dave and Barbara, neighbors in the Grant Building. They spent several years working in Saudi Arabia so they had some interesting stories to tell.

Roger baked a carrot pineapple cake and decorated it so he furnished dessert.

Happy Spooky Birthday, Vicki !

You're the Birthday Girl today so live it up and have a fabulous birthday weekend!

I was happy with 3-0 but 9-0 ????

Those Texas boys must be feeling kind of busted right now..................... GO Giants !!!

Bottom of Eighth -3 - 0 Giants

Who can ask for anything more????????

GO - San Francisco

It's the bottom of the 5th and S.F. is making toast out of Texas. Hopefully it will continue!

Finally - A New Computer..................

I'm back in business with a new HP that has all the "bells and whistles", including Windows 7. The computer tech was finally able to transfer my old files which is a big relief since I had all my business and tax records on Excel. Yes, I learned my lesson. I now have a flash drive that is plugged into the CPU that will update my files, daily.

The only bad thing is that I lost all of my e-mail addresses so, please help me out by sending a "howdy" so I can start recording all of your addresses in a new file.

The past two nights we attended the local O'Gallerie Auction so now it's time to get back to business and sell some silver.

Life Without a COMPUTER !!

I've been sitting back listening to many of my friends telling me that their computer "crashed" or stopped working or got infected with a bug - thinking, well, that won't happen to me - I'm careful about downloads and my computer is only three years old so I'm good for awhile.

Not true. About a week ago my desktop simply died - no symptoms - no moans or groans - just gone...............

At the moment the bad news is that the computer tech still has not been able to retrieve any data and the last time I did a backup was about a year ago. OK.......... don't yell at me - I won't do that ever again.

Fortunately, I have a good laptop so it's getting me by for the moment. We found a new HP for a good price so I'll be brave and upgrade to Windows 7 and, with some luck, I'll be back in business in a couple of days.

Meanwhile, I'm sharing a photo taken from our back balcony of some Fall colors. It's probably the last because we've had a storm with some pounding rain and wind that is starting to denude the trees. It has been snowing at Timberline for a full 24 hours so everyone is excited about early snow activities at Mt Hood.

New Experiences.................

The day started early with a wake-up call at 7 a.m. (that's early for us........). By 8:45 we were at the harbor waiting in line to pass through Customs and wait to drive onto the ferry to Port Angeles. The ferry ride was smooth and the day was sunny and warm so it was a nice ride. When we boarded the boat our car was the lead so when we left the ferry we were the first car off - it really saved us a lot of time because we didn't have to wait behind others to clear Customs again.

We typically drive I-5 but from Port Angeles, 101 is better (and we discovered - much more beautiful). It was a gorgeous drive and we rarely encountered other vehicles so we had the road to ourselves. At Olympia we merged into I-5 so the last part of our drive went quickly. We ended up back at the Monticello Hotel for an early dinner and now we're unpacked and ready to enjoy being home. Bella had a great time on the trip but she was double excited to get back home.

Victoria City Tour

Since this is Roger's first visit to Victoria we decided to take a Grayline City Tour so this afternoon we hopped onto a double decker bus that gave us an 1.5 hour overview of the city and harbor. The tour was actually a first for me, also. In past visits I had enjoyed a horse carriage ride and a pedi-cab tour but they don't cover the area that the bus does.

The weather is glorious again today with sunshine and mild temps so it was a beautiful day to be out. We did some shopping at Roger's Chocolate Shop and walked the entire Government Street. Bella was able to join us so now she's already napping and we're crashing in our room.

Tomorrow is another new experience when we take a ferry from the harbor (about 9 blocks from the hotel) to Port Angeles Washington.

Vancouver and Victoria BC..................

Early Friday we loaded up the Toyota pretty much like the Beverly Hillbillies (well, we needed the French Press, tea pot, Bella's clothes and various stuff, snacks, wine and a whole bunch more) and we finally got on our way in time to stop for lunch at the Montecello Hotel in Longview. We stopped for the night in Lynnwood WA where we went to a family style Italian restaurant (my Lodi friends will remember the Cosmopolitan and Croces where we over indulged in some fabulous food for many years.) This didn't match the restaurants of my memories but it was still fun to see all the platters of really good food being served. (We saw meatballs the size of a man's fist).

Saturday we arrived in Vancouver where we made a stop at a popular kabob restaurant and then went to Iraj's cousin's place for the weekend. Iraj and Amhed have been close friends for all their lives so they had a great time reconnecting.

This morning we headed for the Ferry port to come over to Vancouver Island. We're staying at a downtown hotel that is close to everything but also a little off the edge of the really busy downtown area. Bella was welcomed with open arms and she's already the "princess" of the place. Tonight we walked to Bon Rouge for a fabulous dinner. A gorgeous place with a table in front of a fireplace and romantic music. It couldn't have been any better.

Happy Birthday, ROSANNA !!

Happy Birthday wishes from Portland. We hope your day is as special as you are !

SO, where has Friedli been all week???????

It has been a long time since a book has taken over all of my leisure time - this week it turned out to be three books..............

I'm a little late - most of you have likely read the trilogy written by Stifg Larsson starting with the "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo".

Other than taking care of household duties and some eBay sales, I have been focused on reading this series of books. Today I made a trip to Costco to pick up the third "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest". I'm just starting to read it so that's probably all I'll accomplish this weekend.

Otherwise, there's nothing new so that's all for now........................

Happy Birthday, BELLA..............

Today is Bella's Day - She's 4 years old !

I never would have believed that a little dog could bring so much joy to my life !

Saturday.....................

With good wishes to all of you - Enjoy today.....

Portland City Grill

It's Friday and that means it's the Weekend ! And what do Portlanders do on the weekend? Party.......... (Well, we old retired people party any time that we can find the energy....) So, tonight Cheryl and I went to the Portland City Grill for Happy Hour.

We walked a short block, took the streetcar to the new Max connection that took us to a stop directly in front of the building. For those of you who have visited Portland it's the tall pink building near the waterfront.

The first photo is a view from our table in the cocktail lounge.

Besides a cocktail we ordered snacks (AKA dinner) so we each had a salad and fish and chips ($8 each for both). Cocktails are regular price but this is still a genuine bargain plus we enjoyed a gorgeous view.

Coming home was as easy - we walked outside the other side of the tower, got on the Max - transferred to the streetcar and we were home by 7 p.m.

Roger had a busy day with appointments and errands so he decided to let us "girls" go out without him.

We're enjoying warm weather so I'm already looking forward to a visit to the Farmer's Market tomorrow morning.