Big Stuffed Dalmatians : )

This weekend is a busy one to say the least -
The annual Amateur Radio Convention is in Seaside all weekend, with a benefit speghetti dinner Friday night, there is a concert by the Columbia River Brass Quintet Saturday night and Sunday night is our reception for Mark and Jill at the church which we are pretty much in charge of.
But "busy" is fun.

We're now half way thru all these events. The dinner went great. We got down there a little after three and got home about 9:30 or 10. Didn't have as many as was planned but it ran 300 - 350. All we knew was they were lined up around the corner and we had no idea where the end was but the line didn't go away until about 7:30 and the doors at 5. Some people
straggled in after that but that was when the line around the corner ended. Bob ran the cash register and I handed out the door prize tickets as they came in. We did have a break to eat but that was about it. They had so many door prizes donated, they were calling off numbers about every 30 minutes at first - then at the end about every 10 minutes to give them all away. They had gobs of raffle items so needless to say, they did well on the money end. They really needed it because a lot of the equipment, antennas etc was lost during the storm so some of that can be replaced. It took a lot of volunteer help to pull this off but it was success enough to plan on one again next year.
It was kind of cool because it was in the Seaside Fire Station so they just moved the fire engines out in the parking area in front and we got to see all their equipment, hats, coats etc all lined up hanging on the walls ready to go and even had a call for the ambulance to go out on while we were there. (They have a big stuffed dalmatian in the office - he rides on the fire engines in parades) Really Cool !

Bob was back down to seminars etc on and off all day yesterday....he will go back after church today for the drawings etc. The concert was fun last night. Just a group of guys (in nice shirts and ties, how refreshing - seems you see mostly blue jeans often full of holes on everyone nowdays even as performers.) They were all young men, one of them was Allan Stromquist, whom we are assuming is part of the Stromquist family from the high school here as they said he was from Astoria. Fun concert with some really neat songs.

Tonight is the final event of the weekend. Mark and Jill will be here after church today and we will get to celebrate again with them and get to know Jill a little better. They have to head home tomorrow though. He said he had so many weekends off flying back and forth to Cincinnatti while they were courting that he is out of vacation time. Will give a report on that later....

Hope everyone is having as much fun this weekend as we are.
Hugs to all