TGIF, everybody! Linda, ugh...wallpaper stripping. Good luck with that. Big job. Messy also. Keep focused on your vision for the finish & the fun of watching the new paint transform that room. Alexa, I'm so ready to spend time in the garden. Enjoy the hosta meeting. My early birds are just popping the ground. We've had good precipitation so I'm expecting some good growth this year, hoping anyway. Enjoy the confirmation party. We BBQ'd last night & have leftovers for dinner tonight. Housecleaning happening today. The BIG news here is that we got a conference call from our daughters last night. We'd been on pins & needles for a couple days wondering what was happening. I was just assuming it was a joint Happy BD a couple weeks early for DH. Nope, but it was about birthdays. BOTH of our daughters are pregnant!!! :)) DD#1 is due October 24. They've been trying for about 3 years. She's irregular & it just wasn't happening. She was at the doctor a week ago today & it's official. This will be her second child. DD#1 became pregnant when she was 15 & gave birth at 16 (our first grandson). DGS#1 is now 18 & just finished high school hoping to get into the USCG. Our daughter did not marry her son's father (thank goodness!). Anyway, she's married now to a great guy who wants this baby as badly as she does. We're delighted for them. DGS#1 also seem excited. DD#2 has been married about 7 years. She had a miscarriage a couple years ago. Then, about a year ago her husband lost his job. He was manager of several electronic stores. The entire company filed Chapter 11 late '09. He's not been able to find another job yet. :( Nevertheless, babies don't care about such things & we're all delighted. This is DD#2's first child. She's due September 10. So, we've got grandbabies #5 & #6 coming within six weeks of each other & in time for the Holiday season. This weekend, I want to go shopping for baby stuff! We've got a wonderful baby store here in town. I can hardly wait for DH to finish up some stuff he promised the law firm he's working with so we can go look for cuddly baby blankets, etc. This is a happy weekend in our house! TGIF! /tricia

Stick to your guns Susie. I can feel your tension and hope you take good care of yourself. You will never be there for mom if you don't attend to your needs first. Being healthy and strong allows you to give more with less effort. Sounds like your mom is throwing a guilt trip at you so shrug it off. So hard when you want to help someone and they turn good intentions against you. Moms good luck with all those children... hope the sicky ones recover, those to be come healthy, and those that hope find their dreams. I didn't post yesterday as I was on the road for hours. My alma matter had invited me to attend a lunch/lecture/ and what was probably a wake. A dear departed "sociological technologist" was appreciated with a presentation of his final study given by one of his associates. Lunch was steak strips with a fancy peppery sauce. My table was joined by three beautiful current students happy to enjoy a free lunch. I couldn't hear those across the table from me but the young lady next to me was excited about pursuing a career in enviromental law. We had an alumni at the table currently working in that field so the talk was hot and heavy about what law school might be a good choice. The study was presented after lunch and was about the Internet habits of young people. It looked at the integration of technology into the social lives of high school students... facebook, my space, and creative outlets. Later we met in a quiet room of mostly faculty and memories of the late 60's and 70's and the school's founding were shared by those who were at the scene of the crime. Then we got down to business with cocktails and a connection time. I was a bit of an oddity because most students are fairly wealthy and go on to graduate programs and fancy careers. The college has some intest in using me as an example of what can be done with a liberal arts education without law school. They like that I was able to reinvent myself over and over to meet the challenges of my life. For awhile I sat with the Dean and drunkenly bent his ear about skills I've found critical but aquired after school. I stopped for a burger at a the Harrison Roadhouse which is just off campus and sobered up for the long drive home. For me drunk is about three drinks these days so an hour and food was plenty to get me on my way. I so needed that touching back with a place and people that gave me my adult life. Back to work today. A pocket full of business cards and head full of projects. : ) lyra

This TGIF thread is a new thing for me. Maybe I wasn't here when it was done before. Saturday I have to get up at 5 am and drive to Salem to judge at a high school Speech & Debate tournament all day, then drive a carful of kids including my daughter, back to the school. DD is really into S&D so we have to be driver, judge and sometimes chaperone for several weekends a year, and I'm just "lucky" this was my turn. Sunday I haven't figured out. I will probably take a bike ride in the morning. The leaves are turning here, and it is pretty in our urban parks. There is a local park, rather grandly named "Mount" Tabor, that is covered with big trees, grassy fields, scenic slopes, and a road that spirals to the top of the "mountain" (shhh, it is really just a hill). My usual choice for a quick Sunday ride is to cycle over to Tabor, ride from the bottom to the top, zoom to the bottom, then repeat, over and over. This is called "hill laps" and is sort of like doing reps in a gym, but a beautiful green foresty gym with sweet fresh air. I will be done by mid-morning and then go home and do some cooking. If I feel like more riding and less cooking, I might cycle over to Forest Park which is the largest urban park in the country. This is miles and miles of dense northern rainforest, trails and dirt roads twisting among ferns and mossy old trees. This would be incredible mountain bike terrain, except that bikes are restricted to the dirt roads, but those are reasonably fun too. A friend lives by there, maybe he'll ride with me and then we can have a coffee at the best French bakery in town, St Honores. Or, there is a mountain biking area I haven't been to yet, a not-too-long drive from my house, and now that my van is finally running, I might take the mountain bike out there to check it out. This weekend will be one of the last nice ones in Portland, so mustn't let it go to waste. The next time I take a Sunday ride, it'll be with a rain jacket and neoprene gloves. I did one of those a couple weeks ago, when it rained two inches that weekend. Just a few laps on Tabor felt suspiciously like self-harm, so I high tailed it for home where it took an hour in a blanket by the fire to take the chill off. This post was edited by johnliu on Sat, Oct 19, 13 at 1:59

Happy Friday to you too Susie! Sounds like a great start to the weekend - friends, happy hour and shopping - that is a trifecta if I've ever heard of one. Good luck chari shopping there is a lot of carp out there in the stores. We have a comparatively quiet weekend. We are getting together with a couple of friends for a pot luck happy hour - everyone brings an app and a bottle of wine and we all share. The kids all get along really well so they will probably be shooting baskets, playing football or generally running amuck. Add in the 2 Labs that belong to one of the guys and it becomes quite the crowd. Tomorrow I am going to do a little garden cleanup. Not a lot to do, but I want to bring in a few sedum and hydrangea flower heads for fall/winter arrangements. I think the menfolk will be splitting and stacking some firewood. We only got 1 cord this year since we had a bit leftover from last year. Sunday I may try mixing up some cookie dough for the freezer and finally make a fruit cake. I can't believe I haven't gotten to that yet. We have settled on a cherry pecan bourbon deal that is just fantastic. Have a happy and safe weekend... clinking with a cup of coffee for now and something much more interesting later! Alexa