Eight Crazy Nights

As I pulled into the garage on the evening of Valentine's day, I saw a giant grill sitting in the garage--my early birthday present from Meg and her fam. I guess she gave up on my countless failures at using my charcoal grill. We put the boys to bed early (they were asleep by 7:15 p.m.) and watched The Princess Bride from the comfort of our living room couches.

On Friday the 15th Meg was hosting a tri-ward adult dance for the three wards that meet at our building. The boys were still somewhat ill for a babysitter, so I had to stay home and take care of them. As you might guess, I'm not a fan of dancing (at least in front of other people in a formal setting--for the record, we were at Northern Lights Theatre Pub a few weeks ago with some friends, and at the end of the film, The Real Life of Dan, the stars were dancing at their wedding; Meg wished out loud how much she wanted to dance right now, so I pulled her up and started dancing in the aisle--much to her embarrassment); but it is one of Meg's favorite activities, so I feel bad that she wasn't able to enjoy it with her man there. Yet, she might have had more time with her girlfriends there and just being the boss of the dance . . .

Saturday was my birthday (thus the eight crazy nights of celebration). The weather was outstanding (sunny, clear, and temperatures in the mid 50's), so I wanted to spend as much time outside as I could. I first enjoyed an hour-long bike ride through Salem on my $5 Japanese wonder bike. After returning, Aaron and I planted four blueberry plants that he gave to me as a present. After Meg returned from grocery shopping, we left the kids with a sitter and enjoyed the afternoon in the city. I wanted to go to McGrath's, but Meg insisted we go somewhere else (even though it has been about five years since we ate there last). So we walked around downtown looking for something else and settled on a place called The Brick. The food was okay (as expected for bar food, I suppose) but plentiful. While we were waiting for our food, we spotted a troubadour playing the bagpipes in front of the bar. I dared Meg to ask him to play "Happy Birthday," but she just took some corny photos instead. After lunch we walked around some more, but Meg really wanted to go shopping so that's what we did for the remainder of the day.

After church on Sunday morning, we drove to Sherwood to spend the day with Meg's family (birthday celebration for the February boys). We all spent the night, so I was able to wake up an hour later, cut my commute time in half, and still arrive at the office at the same time. Monday-Wednesday Meg and the boys remained in Sherwood (she had a doctor's appointment in Portland on Tuesday), so I was home alone to do the dishes, wash the car, do the laundry, and cook three different meals with fish (not a favorite among the others in the family).

On Thursday the 21st, Meg met me at the office and dropped off Aaron to my care so we could attend the Blazers vs. Sonics game at the Rose Garden. I was craving Hawaiian food, so we first drove into SE PDX to Noho's for take-out; Aaron refused to share with me, so we drove to the Lloyd Center to park Alice and to hit the food court in search of plain pasta. We headed back outside and caught the next MAX train to the Rose Garden. There were long lines at every entrance to the building, probably because it was Brandon Roy bobblehead night. But after five minutes of waiting in the cool, drizzling air, they opened the doors and we were inside and in possession of our bobbleheads within another five minutes. After we found our seats, I offered to walk around the arena with Aaron, but he was content to sit and watch the teams during their warmups. What amazed me is that the players made about 90% of their shots in practice, regardless of where they shot the ball from. The game eventually started, and Aaron soon figured out which player was Brandon Roy and cheered for him the whole night. About every five minutes Aaron would ask me if he could get a snowcone; and every time I said we'd go get one at halftime. It's not like I was denying his sugar cravings--I had brought fun dips and gobstoppers, but that just wasn't enough. The game was needlessly close, with both teams playing unfortunately sloppily, but the Blazers pulled out the win in the last minute. Aaron learned to chant "Defense . . . Defense . . . Defense" with precision and accuracy (he now says it if we ever watch a game on TV). The game ended about 10:30 p.m.--about 2.5 hours past Aaron's lights out time--but the sugar must have kept his energy level high enough to walk out of the stadium, ride the packed MAX train for a couple of exits, and walk to the car. And once we got to the car and buckled ourselves in, Aaron was asleep. It was hard for me to stay awake, too, and I was asleep within a minute or so of climbing into my bed.