Had Some Jobs to do…

We are probably behind the curve in cleaning up the Christmas mess but we had a big list of stuff to do today.  We were going to get all the boxes down from the attic, de-decorate the house, take the tree out, put the Christmas wrap back in the attic…you know the drill.  The we looked out the window and saw beautiful bright blue skies and decided the Christmas junk would still be here any day of the week.  After all, we’re retired and don’t HAVE to do anything on any certain day.  When you get a gift of sunshine in January in Oregon, you go with it.  The header photo shows 58 degrees and it actually ended up a couple of degrees warmer than that.

So we took Rusty and Poppy and headed for the lake.  Of course I forgot my camera but we had a nice walk and enjoyed the spring-like weather.  Rusty was tired after that so we dropped him off and picked up the camera and set off to climb to the top of Skinner’s butte (in the car of course!).  This is just a small hill in the middle of down-town Eugene and is part of Skinner Butte Park.  Eugene Skinner was the founder of Eugene.  There are great views from the top, especially on a day like today.  We could see all the way to the Three Sisters (only two could be seen) in central Oregon, about 100 miles away.




We could see the river with the I-5 bridge.  A few of you have this used route lately.  We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it!!




We could even see Autzen Stadium, home of the Rose Bowl Champion DUCKS!  (Did you really think I could write a blog today and not mention my Ducks?)




And I could see Poppy straining at her leash wanting to take her Daddy for a walk.




At the bottom of the butte, there is a sheer rock wall that is a popular practice area for rock climbers.  I think this is basalt columns but maybe a soil scientist would know better than I?? I really don’t know much about rocks and such.  This one fella was enjoying the warm sun on his back as he made his descent.



I think this fella was just getting started in the sport but he seemed to be having a good time.  Poppy found this activity incomprehensible but she enjoyed watching!



After all that activity (watching counts, doesn’t it?) we were hungry and went to Marie Callendars for lunch.  I forgot to take pictures but it was sure good.  Russ had a Cobb salad and I had the  special of chicken pot pie, Caesar salad, and a piece of pie for dessert for $10.99.  I had a $5.00 off birthday coupon (tomorrow’s the day), PLUS we both got a free piece of birthday pie so it was a really good deal.  Neither of us could eat pie with lunch, so with our two free pieces, plus the piece that came with my meal, we came home with three pieces of pie…HOT DOG!  Russ chose apple since he didn’t get the apple pie at Carpo’s when we were in Santa Cruz.

We did finally get to a couple of things on our list.  Got the tree down and out to the curb since tomorrow is garbage day, and got the Christmas wrap boxes back in the attic for another year, but that’s about it.  Tomorrow is another day and the stuff ain’t going nowhere!! 

OH, wanted to tell all you grandmas out there…if you want a fun game to play with you grands, try this one.  It’s called Story Cubes.  The games consists of 9 dice which are divided among all players…it really doesn’t matter if you have 1 or 4, it’s all fun.  Each die has a different picture on every side.  Everyone rolls their dice and the players take turns starting a “Once upon a time…” story, using the pictures on their dice.  The next player must take up the story and add to it using his pictures.  The last player brings the story to a conclusion.  It is great for interacting with kids and for stimulating their imaginations…something that is sometimes lacking in today’s electronic age.  At any rate, it sure gets the minds and mouths moving and can become hilarious.  No scoring – it’s just for fun.  I highly recommend this game…might even be fun for adults!

Well, that’s a wrap folks!!