Weekend Away and the End of the Boiler Game 2022

We have just returned from a weekend getaway to Walla Walla.

We met some friends in Walla Walla for their annual Balloon Jamboree. There was supposed to be 38 balloons scheduled to show up.

Our extended summer ended last Friday and it rained all day all the way to Walla Walla. Apparently, rain and hot air balloons do not go well together. The jamboree was canceled.

So we had nothing to do but visit wineries and breweries.

Our friends were staying in their camp trailer at an RV Park while we reserved a room at the local Super 8. 

On Sunday, we drove to Prosser to collect some grapes. We purchased 100 pounds of Cabernet and 100 pounds of Syrah...just like last year.

We spent the rest of the day visiting a few more wineries in the Prosser area and then checking into our favorite place in Sunnyside, the Sunnyside Inn.

We also returned to a restaurant we discovered last year called Las Islas. It is an authentic Mexican restaurant with authentic Mexican people who may or may not speak English. we thought their food was fantastic last year and we have been looking forward to our return.

But, like everything that you remember fondly, it did not live up to our hype. The food was good and the atmosphere was about like we remembered. 

The problem was they were playing that really shitty Ranchero music loaded with accordions and a tuba to play the bass line. I don't really object to the music other than it all sounds the same to me.

 What we objected to was the decibel level that the music was played at. We could hardly talk to each other, let alone order any food.

For some reason, I have always enjoyed looking at this barn next to the freeway.

This year, we stopped and took some pictures. I think this will make a nice pen and ink drawing.

We had a nice leisurely drive home today and got back about 2:00. 

My first order of business was to fire up the boiler. So the new record is October 24th.       

Boiler Game Excitement

 It is looking like we are going to set a new record for the Boiler Game. This Fall has been extremely unusual. Summer has extended well into October. I golfed yesterday with Rob and Mike and I wished I has worn shorts. It was a beautiful, warm day.

I believe the city has already set a record for the most days in October with daily high temperatures in the 70’s.

Tomorrow is the date to tie the Boiler Game record and from the looks of things, I am confident we can easily make it Saturday and perhaps beyond.

We are living in exciting times!

Number Eighteen

Eighteen years ago my wife married the luckiest man in the world...ME!

We had a real low key anniversary today without cards or gifts but we did go to dinner. I made her pay cuz I'm still the luckiest man in the world.

We have run into a pattern when we go out for our anniversary dinner. It's difficult to find a place that's open. The first place we chose to patronize, the Park Lodge was closed. The second place on the list was Azar's since they are closing up shop for good at the end of the week. They are closed on Sundays as well.

So we settled for our third spot, O'Donnell's, which was lovely. We had quite a time finding how to get in the building due to all the street construction going on around them.

Susan had Fish and Chips and I had Whiskey Mac n' Cheese.

I love you, Susan.  

Victor on Parade

We are in the midst of an extraordinary extended summer. The days have been really warm. We could possible break a record for the most October days in the 70’s. That also means that we could have a new record for the Boiler Game. 

It’s been such a nice, warm day that I'm going to surprise Susan tonight with a pit fire.

I took a few pictures of our doorman, Victor tonight.

 I was trying to get something scary that was a little in focus.

You can see I didn't do very well.

Well, there's a reason for that. I blame it on Susan.

She got into one of her cleaning jags the other day and made me move my tripod. Therefore, I couldn't get good steady low light pictures because I don't know where I moved my tripod to.

This is probably the best one.  

The Seahawks Lost Today.

 Yesterday, I rented an Aerator from the local Sun Rental shop and split the cost of it with Mark and Ted. Mark did his yard first, Ted went next and since I was next door, he brought over for me to use. Ted actually did some of the aerating on my yard because I'm such an invalid.

I'm hoping to augment some of the aerating today near the front porch steps with the little hand aerator I have and throw some grass seed in the ground as well. 

The only problem with this strategy is that Halloween is three weeks away and any grass I get growing is likely to get trampled Halloween night.

First item on the work agenda for the day is to put up some Halloween lights on the front porch.

10:19PM: We got the lights up and we also cleaned the porch carpets and I performed a blow job on the porch and front walkway with my leaf blower. I also had a little stump fire which sort of went unsupervised. But nothing burned down.

I guess I'll get to throwing down some lawn seed tomorrow.

Time For Hallowen

I was looking back through the archives of this blog trying to find references to the paper mache pumpkin heads I was working on earlier in the year. I only found one reference back in May that showed this picture.

I'm really disappointed in myself for not tracking this project better. I thought I took a lot more pictures but so far, I can't find any.

I bring this up now because we started hauling down some of our Halloween décor to start getting ready for the upcoming scary day.

I went to grab my pumpkin head and discovered this.

The damn mice have been feasting on my pumpkin. They didn't touch the other pumpkin I made and left the one Susan made years ago alone.

I am now on a mission to destroy every mouse within the world. I will have to figure out how to save this poor poor pumpkin. I have an idea which I hope I will document here. But my history tells a different story.