Whew! What a weekend and now we are home.

What an exhausting weekend we had. The hours of the Taste of Tacoma were 11:00 to 9:00 every day with a closing of 8:00 on Sunday. I usually started an hour to an hour and a half before the carnival opened and then had to work about an hour later than everyone else. Sunday was another story. The carnival closed at 8:00 p.m. but Debbie and I did not get everything done in the office till 1:30 Monday morning. Then because one of the ride gals got hauled off to jail on Saturday, Kenny did not have anyone to pay his spot help and do stuff in his office so I worked for him from 1:45 a.m. to 2:15 a.m. I then had to wait till Ron and the rest of the crew were done with tear down and so we did not get home till 5:15 this morning!

Our initial plan was to leave right away and drive to Smokey Point so that we could miss all the Tacoma/Seattle traffic and then sleep for a couple of hours and then drive the rest of the way to Blaine early afternoon. Well we decided that we were so tired we would just sleep for a couple of hours and then hit the road. What actually happened was that we were asleep before our heads hit the pillow and slept till 10:40 a.m. We could not believe we had slept five hours. We quickly got the motor home ready to go and were on the road at 11:25 a.m. We had a very uneventful trip back to Blaine and we are now safely parked at NACO/TT on Harborview Road. The first thing we said after we parked was "listen, it is so quiet." Don't get me wrong, we enjoy the people we work with but after a couple of incidents this past week it is nice to be in a quiet relaxing place.

So what happened...Friday night, actually 3:00 a.m. Saturday morning a few people came back to the bone yard extremely drunk and overly boisterous. There was lots of shouting, banging, swearing and unnecessary noise. It took almost an hour for me to get back to sleep. Saturday I mentioned to Rob that I hoped we did not have a repeat of Friday night. He asked me what happened, I told him and he said that would not happen again. I said that is what we have heard before but nothing happens. He said if he had been in the bone yard and that happened they would have been fired on the spot. While we are at the bone yard at the Puyallup Fair Grounds he is camped at the campground across the street (where we were fortunate to stay during Spring Fair). I did hear a supervisor being told that it (the drunken & disorderly) will stop now and there is no more slack. I sure hope that is true.

Saturday afternoon, one of the ride gals was running a ride when a bounty hunter showed up at the carnival office, asked for this person, was told where she was and he promptly went over and arrested her. All we know is that she was picked up on a felony warrant. I am sure she will not be back with us for awhile. A sad thing as she was a good worker and we were becoming friends. I do hope to be able to communicate with her soon.

Sunday was just a long day....I don't know how Ron or the others can do a 20+ hour day. I rested in the van from 2:30 a.m. till 4:45 a.m. when we headed back to the bone yard. Sleep never felt so good.

Now on to the fun part...we are home for a few days. We have lots packed in but hope that we are able to see many of you while we are here.

We began our afternoon here in Blaine by picking up the suburban and seeing Marquez & Nicole's newborn son, Emelio. He is so cute and his big brother, Julian, just loves him and is trying to be such a big helper to his mommy & daddy, then to NACO/TT to set up the motor home and then made our necessary trip to the storage unit. Ron picked up a few tools and we got the satellite dish and box. Once we got back I called and had the satellite service turned on. Ron will hook it up once we return from dinner. He is so looking forward to having TV again. we are having dinner with Ron's sisters, Judy & Kathy at Bob's Burger & Brew. We then plan on having a quiet and early to bed night. Need to catch up on some of that missed sleep.

Tuesday our agenda includes:
1. Up around 8:00 to do the never ending job of laundry. At least it will go quickly as we can do three loads at once and we know it won't cost us a fortune. Public laundromats are not cheap.
2. Lunch with Jamie, Suzanne & Opal. Can't wait to see them. Wendy, from the Burger Kitchen sent along a big bag of cotton candy for Opal. I hope she is allowed to at least taste it. I need to remember to put batteries in the camera and take lots of pictures.
3. Dinner with Gerald & Sandra in the evening. I am looking forward to sharing with them the new chocolate wine we bought in Puyallup. I wasn't sure if I would like it but it tastes so yummy.

Wednesday our agenda includes:
1. Ron is going to the Men's Bible study at Blackberry House. That begins at 7:00 a.m. I am then off to have coffee at Woods with Dee. We need to finalize the time but my phone is in the bedroom on the charger and I am being too lazy to go get it right now. I will firm up the time with her later this evening.
2. Dinner, dessert & visiting at 6:00 p.m. at The C Shop. Sure hope that many of you will be able to stop by and spend some time with us. We plan on staying as long as people are hanging out or until we are kicked out.

Thursday we are:
1. Sleeping in unless someone wants to get together for an early breakfast. If you do, give us a shout.
2. Taking the suburban back to Marquez & Nicole's. Then meeting Jerry & Lynda for lunch in Bellingham at the Mexican restaurant on Bakerview.
3. After lunch we will be heading back to Puyallup and the bone yard. Plan to arrive back around 6:00 p.m. because of course we have to stop at Winco and Costco.

Again, if you are in our home area of Blaine and want to get together, give us a shout and let's make it happen.

That's all for now. I will be writing again soon.

Thanks for following along and remember to drop me a note when you can. We love to hear from you all.