Category: Uncategorized

  • April

    The other day my husband commented on how weird it is that just as I started this blog, we ended up staying home for months.  He’s not wrong here.  I decided to start the blog before we got home in October 2024.  My first couple of months were fairly easy to produce some content.

    Not so in April.  I really had to dig deep to find anything to publish.  In the end it may be excruciatingly boring.  So here goes.

    To be honest, April was a pretty good month.  A lot of positive things happened – well a lot of frustrating things happened with positive results.  

    As I stated last month, I ran out of rick-rack for my daughter’s apron.  I went back to Michael’s where I bought it and they were closing out all their trims.  While I was looking for the rick-rack I met a woman – Robin (R) – who was just as frustrated with Joann’s dying and lack of any suitable replacement in Lane County.  We started talking and ended exchanging phone numbers. Jumping to the end of this story, R and I have been texting ever since. The night she performed at Gratitude Brewery’s Open Mic Night, we discovered we are neighbors on opposite ends of the neighborhood.

    Back to the apron.  I received rick-rack I had ordered online from the big A (you know what I’m talking about) and surprise, surprise the color was not what was pictured on the computer.  I called around and no one in Eugene and Springfield had rick-rack – before you say it, Hobby Lobby has an off brand and discontinued the color I needed.  

    This turned out for the best also.  Michael’s in Beaverton OR had the color I wanted and held it until the next day.  It’s a really boring 100 mile drive, especially in the rain, but this offered me the opportunity to stop in Mount Angel at the Abbey bookstore and have some alone time.  Happy April.

    I arrived at Beaverton only to discover Michael’s is  right next door to Mill End, a fabric store a woman at church told me about. Really happy April.  You know those moments in movies and TV when the main character finds what they’re searching for and there is music and birds sing and…you get the picture.  That’s what happened – in my head – when I entered Mill End.  I will return, since there is, essentially, no fabric in Lane County.

    Apron finished and sent off to my daughter; it was time for another trip to Seattle.  We were heading up to pick up David’s dad, Lloyd (L).  The plan was to arrive at J’s house Sunday evening, spend Monday with J and her husband, K and pick up L Tuesday morning on the way back to Eugene. Amazingly enough, all went according to plan.  

    We had dinner Sunday night at Demitri’s on the Edmonds waterfront. The weather was cool but beautiful. The walk back to the car provided some pretty amazing views of northern Puget Sound.

    L spent Easter with us and we had a very quiet, lovely Easter.  We took L home on Tuesday after Easter and came back to Eugene the next day.

    On our way back up to Lynnwood The Mountain Was Out.  So was Seattle.

    In the middle of all this mundane stuff my laptop died and the house computer stopped updating.  So a new laptop for me and new computer parts for David to build us a new computer, before the dreaded tariffs go into effect.

    David had the first of two cardiac procedures that Thursday. The sec ond was May 2nd. Once he has a follow up appointment we find out what our summer will be like.

    Like I said; April was not very exciting.   Hopefully, it won’t be long before there will be more interesting content.

    Sorry about the boring format. I couldn’t get the format to work. Another reason I need to post more often. I’ll just have to try harder to dig up more content.

  • March

    Shenanigans

    March.  Geesh what happened to February?  We obviously didn’t do much.  But; we made up for it on the fourth weekend in March. There were more shenanigans than adventures this month.

    March is THE birthday month in our family: Daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law and 3 of 4 grandchildren.  Grandson #1 missed it by one day – his birthday is April 1st.  It’s rare that we get to celebrate with our daughter’s family since they live in Colorado. Traveling to Colorado in March is sketchy by car and we try to avoid airfare for things like Christmas or emergencies (none of latter yet, touch wood)

    We started the weekend early on March 20th by arriving at David’s sister’s (J) house late in the afternoon.  Her husband (K) was leaving that evening for Florida so game night had to begin. 

    We started by finishing Legacy Season 0, Viticulture, and The Crew.

    If you are familiar with the Pandemic games you’ll know what Legacy is. We’ve been playing Pandemic games since 2019.  As a matter of fact, we were playing Pandemic in February 2020 as the Covid pandemic was unfolding in Asia. We were watching it on TV as we played.  Creep factor was high.

    .

    Friday: David and J took off for their sister’s  (L) house in Orting to visit with her and their dad. I met up with my oldest cousin on my mother’s side, Karen (K).  K is also my godmother.  We went to lunch and updated each other on our lives.  K will be 86 April 8th.  She still sews – her machine is newer and fancier than mine.  She also paints.  The visit with K stirred my creative juices.

    Saturday I think David, J and I actually didn’t do much.  We did watch a lot of TV.  J and I did go to JoAnn’s to see what they had left.  She bought fabric. I didn’t want to pay the Washington sales tax and there really wasn’t much I wanted.  Of course this week I ran out of rick rack for a current project.  There is nothing in Eugene. 

    Can we all take a moment here to mourn the loss of JoAnn’s.  

    Sunday we celebrated birthdays.  Grandson #2 (March 3) and grandson #4 (March 25). The boys opened their presents from us – puzzles – and then we worked them together.  So much fun. At five and three these guys are growing and maturing at an exponential rate. It was so heartwarming to hear the two boys talking to each other and helping each other with their puzzles. I hate living so far from my grandsons.

    The last bit of March left me a bit of time for my own fun.

    Hope to see you next month.

  • The Beginning

    I would like to say; starting a blog has been HARD. I have been trying to get this going for a month. I chose Blue Host as the most recommended host to get me started. They have been very patient with my requests for help on their chat site and I very much appreciate the people who tried very hard to explain everything I did not understand. However, I discovered in college that I am a multi-media learner. So I started watching YouTube videos – the place I should have started. Something I should have learned from my husband when we were building out our van in 2022. At this point I just hope everything is functioning the way it should – holding my breath.

    I would also like to thank my every patient husband for indulging me in this endeavor. He has not only relinquished our computer to me for hours at a time when mine started fritzing out on me, but he also step up in the kitchen by taking care of dishes and clean-up (usually my job).

    It is my hope that I will learn more about blogging and the next entry won’t be so agonizing.

  • Shenanigans and Adventures

    Fun Times

    Welcome

    I am April Phinney and this is my blog. An important disclosure here: I am a 69 year old retiree who has avoided computers – other than email, facebook, and editing my photos – since retiring in 2021,

    The blog is my way of sharing our travels (Adventures) and experiences (Shenanigans). My husband and I have been periodically traveling in our 2018 Ram Promaster since completing the conversion of the empty van to a camper.

    When I announced my intention to leave Facebook several people asked where they would be able to follow my travels. A blog seemed the best solution. So here we go!!

    Keep in mind; this is a huge learning experience for me. So there may be some stumbles on the way.

    Let the fun begin!

    My Contact Information:

    aprilsshenanigans@gmail.com