Christmas Cuddles!

I like my current blog theme, but it won’t let me change the font size. I think this font is a bit small and some new themes have been presented, so I’m perusing them.

Occasionally, I make up songs to the tune of other songs.  Well, more “all the time” than “occasionally”.  There are a couple of different songs that work well. One is “Bringing In The Sheaves”, a song we used to sing in church when I was young.

I mention this because when I thought of changing the theme, I started to sing:

(To the chorus of “Bringing In The Sheaves”…)

Time to change the theeeme,
Time to change the theeeme,
We shall come reJOICing,
CHECKing out the THEEEMES!

Sometimes this works:

Going to the maaaalll
Going to the maaallll
Going to buy some BOOOOTS
BUYING STUFF AT THE MAAALLLL!!

There’s this old favorite:

Puppy on my laaap
Puppy on my laaaap
Jackie loves her BLAANKIEEE
Jackie needs a NAAAAAP!!

Of course, I also just took a pie out of the oven:

Taking out the PIIIIEE
Taking out the PIIIEE
We shall come reJOICing
TAKING OUT THE PIIEEEE!

Eating up the PIIEE,
Eating UP the PIIIIIEE,
We shall come REJOICING
GOBBLING UUP OUR PIIIIEEEEEE!!

“La Vie En Rose” also works quite well for made-up songs.

IIII am getting out the PIIEEE, I’m taking out the PIE, and it will be so YUMMMMYYYY.
YES, I’ll eat up all the PIIEEE, and I will be so GLAAAD, with pie filling MY TUMMMMMMYYY!!!

My songs aren’t fancy, but they get the job done.

If you’d like to try making up your own songs and aren’t familiar with the above two, most Christmas songs work great.  Come to think of it, the song “Friday” by Rebecca Black shows quite a bit of promise…

PIEday, PIEday, everyone loves PIEday…ladadadadeedaladadeeda…!

Yay, new toothpaste!

Oooh, coupons!

??????????

~Those high barstool-type chairs.  My legs dangle and fall asleep.
~A table at my favorite laptopping place with no electrical outlet nearby.  My laptop battery only lasts 40 minutes, which is not enough time to do anything.
~Ridiculous amounts of traffic at 3:30 in the afternoon.
~Itchiness.  Allergies are so distracting.

Want:

~Fun people at the coffee shop:  A little girl at the table across from me was trying to put her hand in her mom’s water glass.  When Mom told her to stop, she said, “But I just wanted an iceberg!” 
Also, a gentleman came in and found I was sitting at his favorite table.  He sat down anyway and we had a nice conversation while he ate his breakfast.  He works for the Oregon Department of Transportation in their IT office and knows someone who used to work in my dad’s office, and he has an Australian Shepherd.
~Nice staff at the coffee shop.  I like being able to leave my table to go to the ladies’ room without worrying about someone running off with my stuff.
~Powdered chai.  It is the best.
~Hilarious vegetables from our garden!

The whole balloon is in this bag!

Cold air is blown into the balloon with a fan:

The burner is fired up and hot air is blown in:

Balloon is up and they’re ready to go!

Up…

Up…

and Awaa…

…yyyyyyy!

I had planned to spend the morning checking out some estate sales, or rushing home to take photos if the balloon was going to come our way.  But, the winds were “light and variable” and the balloon floated off toward downtown.  I was snapping away when one of the crew asked if I wanted to come with them in the chase van. Yes! 

When they call it a “chase” vehicle, they aren’t exaggerating.   There’s a sign on the back of the van that says “Warning: Frequent Stops and Indecisions!”  While we zoomed and stopped and looked and went around the block and zoomed the other way, Dad and Ben were floating over the river looking down at the Oregon State Capitol building with the Gold Pioneer on top, and all of downtown Salem; and listening to the balloon pilot, Jim Desch, guide them through their aerial tour.  Jim, who owns Balloon Flying Service of Oregon, has been flying since 1989 and knows every possible landing spot in the area.  They estimated that this spot would work so Cecil pulled the van in here and stopped:

But…oops!  The winds changed direction and we had to jump in the van and take off to the east, where there was a nice big field next to the city shops. 

Coming in:

It cleared the wires effortlessly (although from the ground it looked like they were coming in right on top of them!)

A perfect landing!

Time to pack up…

At the top of the balloon – it’s 200°F on this end!

They wrap straps around the balloon and then pack it into the bag…

They have to squish it so it will fit in the van!

When everything was packed up we all rode in the van back to the launch site, and took our cars to Wallace Marine Park in West Salem for the traditional champagne or sparkling cider breakfast.  Jim graciously invited me to join in, (but only those who flew in the balloon were allowed to have champagne)!

Setting up for breakfast.

Ben wanted to go throw a rock in the river (ka-bloop!)…

Before breakfast, Jim introduced the champagne toast with a history of ballooning…

…and presented Dad and Ben with framed Certificates of Ascension! (They also got to keep the champagne cups with the little balloons on them!)

Breakfast included croissants with strawberry cream cheese or chive cream cheese, crackers and a cheese spread, chocolates, and brownies. For beverages we could choose hot chocolate with whipped cream and sprinkles or coffee. Everything was delicious, and I was enjoying the meal and the conversation (mostly about Jim’s former career – monument making) so much I completely forgot to take any photos of the food! 

<I JUST realized that the whole time Ben and Dad were on their balloon ride and I was in the chase van, I didn’t once think of the song “Up, Up and Away” until just now when I was trying to invent a title for this post. Can you believe it?>

Anyway, the other day my dad called and invited my son and me to go for a balloon ride in this very balloon! (It’s on Dad’s “bucket list”, last year he and Ben went on the Slingshot ride at the Fair, and he has been skydiving about once a year for the past 4 years. Dad had to miss skydiving and the rafting trip this year because of problems with his heart, and he was quite disappointed! Now he’s good to go, though!)

After the balloon flight there is a picnic continental breakfast with champagne or sparkling cider. It sounds like so much fun. I would LOVE to go. But, last time I was up high (Ferris wheel) I had a small panic attack and couldn’t stand to look. Since there isn’t room to sit down and hide in the balloon gondola and I don’t want to be a party-pooper, I decided not to go this time. My logical brain wants to go, but my bipolar brain is a total spoilsport. 

So, Ben will be going with his grandpa bright and early tomorrow morning – there are multiple start points so they will find out tonight where they start (depends on the weather and wind).  He is super excited.  It’s so great that Grandpa includes Ben in all his adventures.  I’m going to have him text me if they are going over our house so I can go out and wave and get a photo!  It’ll be awesome!

Watching Scooby-Doo…