Experience in the Plains

Wednesday was a very long day but it was successful in bringing me to one of Steve's favorite places in the world -North Dakota.

We boarded the flight to Denver with his parents at 3pm.  Smooth flight; however, when we arrived we learned the connecting flight to Minot was cancelled.  The airline quickly said it was "not their fault"; we suspect it was due to such a small number of passengers.  We ended up detouring to Willingston, two hours from Minot.  Steve's uncle picked us up and we finally tumbled into bed around 1am.

Thursday I was invited to have lunch at the country club with the girls.  These gals were a close knit group of friends of Steve's mom Kathy (who goes by Kiki in ND) and her sister Ann.  All ten of us had lunch, where I learned that most everyone in the small community were related to one another.  One married one's brother, another's son had married one's daughter, and so on.  It was a lunch full of stories, remembrances, and laughs.

After lunch we rode over to Velva to watch second cousins Maddie and Libby play volleyball at the school.  Meaning the school where all kids, kindergarten to senior, take classes.  Following that, Steve took me on a tour of Velva, where his mom grew up and where he spent many summers as a child.  Our evening ended up meeting his parents, aunt, uncle, and cousin for dinner before heading to Aunt Ann's to stay for the night.

Friday we slept in then later in the day we cruised to Strawberry Lake, a community of cabins surrounding a lake that is a summertime getaway for Steve's relatives.  We stopped at Uncle Mike's cabin to relax and enjoy the sights before making our way to the Burns ranch for dinner.

Steve's second cousin is getting married at the Burns ranch so we were invited to the rehearsal dinner.  A big tent was up and the decorating was being fine-tuned when we arrived.  Today at 6pm the wedding will be held and we are looking forward to the big party to follow.

This morning Steve met up with another cousin and friends to go duck hunting.  They ended up getting 10 ducks and 10 geese and a barrel of laughs.

A few things I've learned so far on my trip - ND is very windy, there's always a patch of hay to be found, and everyone is friendly.

Weddings and Wisconsin

Diva, Candy, Jordan, Sam and Grandma Arlene

Candy and Jordan

Big and Little Bro

First off, congratulations to my son Jordan and his new wife Candy, who were married on September 4, 2015.  It was a sunny wedding on the banks of Lake Sacajawea where they were surrounded by flowers with the lake fountain in the background.  I've never seen Jordan so happy and I wish both of them many blessings for a loving and long marriage.

On Tuesday, September 8 I departed bright and early for my work trip to Madison, Wisconsin.  Upon arrival, the team met up at home-grown Streckers for dinner, which included a Bloody Boot for me, filled with bloody mary mix and garnished with cheese curds, pepperoni, and pickle, plus I got to keep the boot!!

Bloody Boot

Wednesday brought the group of us together for all day training followed by a big barbecue dinner at the former CEO's house.  There was lobster, grilled ham, chicken, corn, and an abundance of cheese curds! 


Thursday was the golf tournament for our scholarship participants.  Unfortunately the day started off with rain but burned off and became hot enough that our many trips to the margarita and shot holes were worth it.  We drove the cart around to each hole to hob nob with the players then enjoyed a nice dinner buffet before heading back to the hotel that evening.

I made my way home Friday evening, where I was promptly picked up at the airport by Steve who then whisked me off to Cannon Beach to spend time with his family.  I met his aunt, a cousin and her husband, and his sister and her husband - all very friendly and welcoming.  It was a great weekend to kick back, read, and nap.  Steve made salmon chowder for dinner Saturday then on Sunday we had mussels straight from the surf along with halibut fish for dinner.



Now here it is Tuesday and I'm counting the days until my next trip on the 23rd to visit North Dakota with Steve and his parents.  Never been there so looking forward to marking that state off my list!

Boston, Bugs, and Birthday

August has flown by and my September will be even busier! 

 

New England - My recent trip to New England was a success – made it home in one piece and recovered that weekend from the time change. My flight home left me with a four hour wait at the Boston airport so I filled my time reading, surfing the web, and (unfortunately) getting my nails filled.  That was a mistake!

Boston Nails - I knew I had time so I searched out a hair/nail salon at the airport.  The woman, a nice Italian lady in her late 30’s with a very strong Boston accent, said she had time to fill my nails.  Do you ever have those moments when you know something is going to be a disaster but you decided to plow ahead, hoping for the best?  That’s what happened in this case.

Instead of using a file drill, she grabbed the nail file old school and, after removing my polish, she began lighting filing the tops of my nails.  She then laid out her brush and the fill material. Initially layering on the filler, she realized she had the wrong kind so she wiped my nail and grabbed the correct bottle.  Uh oh.

She dipped the brush haphazardly into the solution then the dry filler powder before placing it on top of my nails.  She tried to be neat and tidy but she was not blessed with the ability to create a natural looking fake nail.  The filler on my nails began to resemble lumpy piles of mashed potatoes – ridges, bumps, and waves.  She then attacked the filler with a buffing file which did nothing to smooth my now pathetic digits.  Even slapping on polish and top coat did nothing to improve the site of my nails.

I sadly paid for my fill.  The poor nail lady was just so pleased with her efforts that I couldn’t ask for a refund.  However, my first appointment when I returned home was to get the entire mess stripped off and a new set put into place.

Jordan's new tattoo

Jordan and Candy - Fit in a nice Chinese dinner with Jordan and his now fiancé, which was an enjoyable time catching up with each other and learning more about his girlfriend. 

Flu Bug - Hit the ground running back at work then screech….wound up with the flu bug, which I always attribute to any return flights from the East Coast.  The Wednesday evening following my return my stomach just wasn’t feeling right.  In fact, it felt very wrong, up to the point I began barfing every hour upon the hour through the evening.  Ugh.  Been a long time since I’ve had the flu.  Ended up staying home Thursday to recover, returned to work Friday, which was a mistake, and left early to continue my recuperation.

Steve – Happy birthday today, 9/1, to my Steve.  He has been busting his butt this summer at the farm but we were finally able to connect last weekend to catch up.  We have tentative plans to go salmon fishing on Buoy 10 this Thursday but I’m waiting to hear confirmation.

Sam and his buds

Wisconsin – I’m off to Wisconsin for work in a week and will return home on 9/11 (of all the crappy dates.)  Steve will pick me up from the airport and we will head straight to Cannon Beach to spend the weekend with some of his out-of-town relatives.

North Dakota – Steve’s family invited me go along with them the end of this month for a cousin’s wedding in North Dakota.  Have never been there so for the experience I immediately said yes. 

Sam – New landscaping job for Sam and he has been rocking it.  Happy he is out there doing something and earning some money!

Hair like this!

New Hair Do – This past weekend I decided to go for the gusto and get a short do.  A couple of weeks ago I got lots of layers in it and was trying for a shag look.  Nope, that wasn’t going to work so decided to get an asymmetrical pixie type cut.  Yep, that short.  Had it done Sunday and decided this morning the longer side was a bit too heavy so wacked some of that off in my bathroom this morning.  Ahhh…much better!!!

That's it for now!!!  Hopefully I'll have a new blog post the end of this week that shows me holding a huge salmon!!!

 

P.S. Only 115 more days until Christmas!!!  Yikes!!!