What a week!!

Actually it really did not start so bad. We were walking around on Monday at 4 pm to see where "Happy Hour" would be for the day to find out that it was Larry's birthday that day and Mark's the next. So of course since Kathy is still here, there was plenty of cake and ice cream. These are the days where we skip the diet and just enjoy being with our friends. It was nice to sit out on the patio at the clubhouse on a warm and sunny afternoon. There have not been that many this season.

Tuesday was more exciting for us. People that follow our blog frequently know that we were looking for a place to settle down again last summer on the west coast and due to the current state of our economy, that is not going to happen right now. So we decided to give "workcamping" a shot. We have been subscribing to an online workamper magazine that provides us with daily listings of campgrounds looking for people. Doug had also heard about a place called Adventureland through one of the many forums he follows. Adventureland is an amusement park in Altoona, IA (near Des Moines) and is one of the biggest employer of workcampers in the country. We knew that their human resource manager was coming to the valley to hold interviews, so Doug gave him a call one day and we had an appointment on Tuesday at 10:15 am. The gentlemen we met with was very nice and was able to answer all the questions we had as well as explain to us what would be expected of us. I never thought that we would actually get an answer if we would be hired or not that day, but by the end of the interview we both had a job for the summer. I will be working in retail and can start on April 24th and Doug will be working in rides with a starting date of May 21st. So you will be probably be hearing a lot about Adventureland and our adventures there this summer.

As our friends know, Doug has been in pain with his left shoulder for some time and finally agreed to go to an orthopedic specialist to find out what is going on. Well, he has a rotator cuff injury and we tried to relief some of the pain by him getting a steroid shot last week. For a lot of people, like our neighbor Donna, who got a shot in her knee, this works and the pain goes away. Unfortunately for Doug the pain stayed. So we have made the decision for him to have surgery this coming Monday, so that he will have enough time for rehab before we have to leave here for our jobs in the beginning of April. Wish us luck and say a little prayer for him please.