Weekend Update #32, Friends, Family, and Bowling

This weekend was nice. It was full of seeing friends and family, spending time just the two of us, some lazy time, with a cherry of utter sports humiliation on top. :-)

Friday night was great. Mot didn't feel like cooking, there were no groceries in the house, and neither of us wanted to be home. I emailed the boys, and we ended up meeting at a local Mexican restaurant for dinner. We were to meet at 6:00, so we stopped by a local furniture retailer to pick up a desk I'd ordered last week. (It looks like it was meant for the spot I put it in, I tell ya!)

Anyway, after we ate, the boys went home to pick up a pie Steve had made, and Tom and I went to the store for cool whip. Can't eat a fruit pie without it, right??? :-)

We played a couple hands of cards, started a fire in the "tomato"....the boys had golf the next morning, so we broke up the party fairly early (for the four of us). :-)

Saturday was the perfect day. The weather was in the low 70's as a high...blue skies, a few clouds, and very little wind. I woke up and went down to feed the cats.

Morgan was there, Nala wasn't.

Nala is a pig. She'll knock you over if she thinks you're going towards her food bowl to feed her.

So her not being there was a bit strange.

I looked throughout the house, the garage...calling her name. Something was amiss. It was then I started checking windows. And, the last window I checked downstairs showed me what I was afraid of. The little snot had snuck outside.

So I went outside and called and called. Nothing.

Mot went after he got out of the shower, and we found her under the back deck. Covered in cobwebs and freaking out. Yowling the most pitiful meows I've ever heard. Dumb cat!!! :-)

Robin and Switch came by to pick up a curio cabinet we were no longer using. She was on her way to get her eyes checked, after 20 million years of taking Advil every day for headaches!!!! I made her take a picture while she was there to prove it to me. :-)

We headed out after they left.

We went to Mo. Valley and ate breakfast at the diner there. Then we went to mom and dad's house. They'd just gotten a new kitten, and I had a gift bag for the new arrival (we take new pets very seriously). :-)

Sugar is awesome. We played with her for an hour or so, then headed down to Double Barrel to see Chris and Jody. They own the local gun shop, and we've been friends for a number of years. After hanging out there a number of hours, we headed to another friend of ours that lives in the country outside of town.

After driving around out on his property, we located him near the new duck/goose hunting pond he created last year (or was it the year before? I forget). We sat in the bed of his pickup and talked. We talked crops, we talked hunting, we talked about some stupid crop duster that dumped some stuff on his organics, and killed off quite a bit. Not cool. :-(

He had family in town, so we parted ways after our chat.

From there, we went home...and had ourselves a lazy afternoon. Mot read some books, I watched some TV and did some napping. All the windows and doors in the house we open. Cool breeze blowing through. Bliss!!!!

Sunday was another lazy morning. We both laid in bed and read until about 9:30. Mot made his biscuits and gravy for breakfast...yummo!!!! We left the house about noon, and wasted time until bowling started.

Oh yes, you heard me....Mot and Nej are bowling again. After how many years???? His fire department schedule doesn't allow for consistent league participation, so we stopped playing when he got the job. The boys asked us if we wanted to bowl on their league....and we said "hell yeah."

The IGBO league is on Sunday afternoon. And I LOVE bowling!!! But, I really stink at it.

Really, really, really stink at it.

84, 88, 111 were my scores yesterday. Small children and Chihuahuas can bowl better than I can. OK, OK....so that's a bit of an exaggeration. I tend to be a little hard on myself, if you haven't figured that out yet.

In this case, I can use my sucky bowling powers for good, not evil. Danny's team needs the handicap. And boy can I provide!!!!!! (hehehehe)

Since Sunday was the first day, it was free bowling, and the four of us bowled together, not on our league teams (I'm bowling with Danny's team, Mot is bowling with Steve).

Mot ran into a classmate from high school while we were there. One of the first sentences out of her mouth "I KNEW you were gay!!" I"m still giggling.

This league is going to rock!!!!





From there, we went grocery shopping, then home to hang out and prepare for the week ahead.

Mondays come way to soon!!!!!!!!! :-)

Taming of the Shoes: Flower Power

Another really comfortable pair of heels. Haven't worn them in a while, not much in my closet to wear them with. Really must go shopping. :-) :-)

Bigger Than Life

Carmi at Written Inc posts a weekly photographic theme, and I thought I'd join in on the fun this week.

" Thematic Photographic is kinda simple. Just post a pic that follows the theme......"

This week's theme - BIG!!!!!!!!

I'm constantly frustrated with trying to capture the feeling of how large something is....via a photograph. I think I've taken some awesome shots, and when I get home to look at them....well...they usually just don't live up to my own expectations.

Numerous times I've stopped taking pictures because "I'm just not going to be able to show the size, or beauty that I'm seeing with my own two eyes. "

Having said that, I thought this pic was fun.....and came close to showing exactly how BIG this thing really was. :-)

Weekend Update #31: Computers, Shopping, and Staying Home

I was so excited about not having to travel 2000 miles this weekend, and being able to stay home......so excited, in fact, that I didn't stay home this weekend.

I know, makes no sense to me either. :-)

Mom, Inny, Lauren and I headed up to Grandma's Friday night...as a kind of girls night out. We met at the Godfather's in Blair for dinner. After eating more than we should have, and raiding the quarter machines for bouncy balls, and other nonsense we didn't need.....we moved our party to grandma's house.



She'd bought a new computer...quite some time ago I guess....and my first mission was to get it up and running for her.

I surprised myself. I mean, I'm not computer illiterate...but I'm not a "computer person" in any way. I can use them, but making them run if they decide to stop, hooking them up......just not my thing I guess. I'm more of a software gal. :-)

But, we got her old one taken down, new one up and running....email and all! Yeah Nej!

By the time we ate, then got the computer all set up, we didn't get done what we wanted...we'll just have to do it another night. (hehehe)

Saturday was nice. Mot came home from work, and went right to bed. He'd spent all night out on med runs...and then from about 2:00 and on at an apartment fire. Poor thing was bushed!!!

When he woke up, we headed out to run some errands. Lunch, then Scheels for tennis balls (for Isaac) and .410 shells for grandpa's shotgun. While at Scheels, we also bought a box of blue rock and decided to shoot some clays that afternoon. We left Scheels with shells, clays and a trainer for my bike. (hey, it was on sale...and I've been looking at them for quite some time!!)

Anyway, from there we home and loaded up 4 of our shotguns and the thrower. On our way to his parents house, we stopped at a park near their place. Mot's oldest brother has become a BBQ competitor. The event was over by the time we got there...and people were packing up. I hope I'm able to go next year!



(His brother and buddy ended up getting 7th on their brisket, and 8th overall - or something like that. Congrats!!!!)

Man....the two of us had a blast shooting that afternoon!!! We haven't done that in WAAAAYYY too long!!! I took my 20 ga, my 12 ga, the .410, and Mot brought one of his 12 ga.

410 is my new addiction!!! I couldn't stop smiling and giggling the whole time. I'd never shot one before, and figured I wouldn't hit a thing. I was smashing everything!!! How fun!!!







When we were finished, we ate dinner with his parents, then headed home.

Sunday was a lazy morning. Until about 9:00 when Mot called, and said he'd gotten the day off and was coming home. :-)

We headed out for lunch, then back to Scheels. #1 - because we didn't get the tennis balls like we were supposed to the day before #2 - we needed more ammo for grandpa's shotgun (giggle). We also stopped to look at over/under 410 shotguns. I'd LOVE to take it out on the skeet range, but grandpa's is only a single shot.

(I told you I was addicted!)

From there we hit the bookstore (go figure), Target (nearest Starbucks from where we were), a Mexican Import place (it was a bust), Best Buy (need to replace our computer in the den, it was a research mission), Backwoods (free backpack), Lowe's (shelves for the living room)...then headed home.

The rest of the day was pretty lazy. I watched some TV in between cat naps, and it felt great!!! :-) :-) :-)

PROMPTUESDAY #70: Sooner or Later, I Was Gonna Have to Do It

San Diego Momma has, yet again, put forth a little piece of writing homework for her readers. And I, yet again, am going to jump in with both feet and see what happens. You only live once, right?

Please describe a blind date.

Make it up or give us a little truth is stranger than fiction.

Bonus points and adoration from afar: If you make it up, include “Finland”, “chenille robe”, and “casserole” in your submission.

I found myself saying to the mirror in my bathroom "Never again! NEVER!!!"

Blind dates. A word that brings shivers and involuntary stomach cramps to women (and men) around the world. Why do we insist on setting up our friends with "that perfect person?" And why do we, in turn, agree to go on setups so thoughtfully arranged by our friends?

I had just 'returned' from a blind date. "There should be a support group for this stuff."

(sigh)

I was just crawling into bed when the phone rang.

" *squeal* Hey!!! How did it go? Did you like him? Did he like you? Isn't he the ceuuuuuuutest thing ever? I knew you two were made for each other. Where did he take you for dinner? What did you eat? Isn't he just the most adorable guy eeevvvvvvvver? "

I didn't want to be mean....I didn't want to tell her what I was thinking at that exact moment. I didn't want to threaten her life.

And I surely wasn't going to tell that her next door neighbor, Mr. Blind Date, smells like a teenage boy just getting off of his 8 hour shift from the local Pizza Hut.

"Uh, hey! Yes,he's very attractive, and the date went fine. I'm just heading to bed, can we talk later?"

"Nooooo!!! You have to tell me everything."

(sigh)

"OK, OK. Scott (Mr. Pizza Hut smelling Blind Date) was going to pick me up at 7:00."

"Was, what do you mean was? Was he late? Did you have to drive? I'll kill him!!!!"

"No, no, no...nothing so drastic. Geez! He wasn't late..and I didn't have to drive. In fact, he was early. And......."

"And??"

"And...he didn't drive either."

"I'm not following you."

"He brought his town car thing...not a limo or anything...but a really nice sedan. He had a DRIVER!! When he knocked on the door, it was 30 minutes earlier than we'd discussed...and I was still only wearing my chenille robe. I'd just gotten out of the shower!"

"Oh no. What did you do?"

"Well, I invited him in. It was raining, and I thought it rude to make him wait outside. I rushed to get dressed, and when I came out, he was in my kitchen. There were 4 or 5 grocery bags on the counter. He cooked me dinner...in my kitchen...without asking. Apparently, he's used to getting what he wants."

"Well....was the food any good?"

"He cooked a tater tot casserole for crying out loud!!! Said it was really popular in Finland. He'd just returned from there...business trip or something. Who is this guy??"

"What did you do next?"

"The three of us ate dinner."

"Three?"

"I invited the driver in. You have a date with him next Friday."

Mostly Wordless Wednesday: Del's

I think our family single handedly kept this place operating all week.

Tuesday night - Mom and Dad

Wednesday night - Mot and Nej

later Wednesday night - Inny, Doug and kids

Thursday night - Mom, Dad, Doug, Inny and kids

later Thursday night - Kent, Linda, Mot, Nej, Mom and Dad (yes, they came back after having left just an hour before - but they only had dessert for the second visit)

:-)

4 months and counting......

I'm sure it's made its rounds a million times online, but I giggled when I first saw it. :-)

Weekend Update #30: New Mexico (part 4)

By the time Friday afternoon rolled around....everyone was fairly stressed out and tired.

Once visits to the lawyer, the bank, and 40 misc other phones calls were made, everyone took the afternoon off.

Besides Amarillo, TX (which is nearly 2 hours away), there are no towns to visit, no sites to see...unless you drive a minimum of 3 hours. In any direction.

Literally.

The best I could come up with was the Museum of Pharmacy (2 hours away), or the local community college dinosaur museum.

So.....Mom, Kent, Linda, Mot and I all loaded up in the Jeep and drove to Santa Fe, NM. Nearly 4 hours away.

And, because of the time of day we left...we'd only be able to spend a couple of hours there before having to turn around and come home.

But we were desperate......


The road to Santa Fe was just as straight and flat as the rest of the driving we'd done that week.


But cloud cover, and isolated thunderstorms made the views more dramatic.

Santa Fe is a pretty cool town. We weren't there all that long....but we did enjoy the time we spent.


First stop, lunch at a nice little Spanish cuisine place.


Mot, on his way to the restroom, made friends with this gentlemen. He was a musician scheduled to perform in the bar later that night.


Because of the time we stopped in, we had one of the dining rooms all to ourselves.

After we finished eating....we walked on Canyon Road for a while. Canyon Road is a fine art district in Santa Fe. Everything we found was a little out of our price range, but it was fun to walk the streets, enjoy the atmosphere, and drool over some pretty amazing artwork. :-)







For some reason, I was fascinated by doors that day.





There are quite a few more door pictures like these. Don't ask, I have no idea!! :-)

We were less than excited about the drive home. We passed the time playing "what's that cloud look like to you?"....and "the pastors cat."

The pastor's cat is a very___ cat. Then you fill in the blank using each letter of the alphabet.

Each person gets a new letter, but must first repeat the letters that have gone before them.

Angry
Bad
Crunchy
Demented
Elongated
Fabulous
Grandiose (Gobsmacked, Grumpy.........every time it went around, the letter G changed.)
Helium-filled
Irrelevant
Jocular
Kleptomaniac
Limber
Mangy
Narcissistic
Opulent
Posh
Quintessential
Radical
Supercalifragilistic (spell check hates this word - go figure!!)
Temperamental
Ukulele-playing
Volkswagen-driving
Wisecracking
Xanadu loving
Yodeling
Zippy

More of grandpa's requested rain pelted us during the last half hour of our trip....I love a good thunderstorm!!!!



We got back to Tucumcari around 10 pm. Walt and Jo (grandpa's sister) had arrived in town while we were gone...so we stopped in at their hotel to say hi.

But the group of us didn't last long, before we drove across the street, and went to bed. Saturday was going to be a very long and busy day.

Taming of the Shoes: Take me back......

Found these beauties at a second hand store. Couldn't resist!!!!! :-) :-)

Weekend Update #30: New Mexico (part 3)

Thursday afternoon, after we'd adjourned from grandpa's house....Mot and I headed into Amarillo....just a quick hour and half down the road. Mot was hungry and I think, after the excitement of walking Buster was over, he needed a break away from family.

Who's Buster you ask?

Buster is my dad's half sister's dog. A Scottish Shepard, or something like that. Basically, a big ball of fur, with legs. Quite the dog!!!

When they arrived on scene, Mot and I offered to take him for a walk after their long drive. A group of us headed out to walk around San Jon (which doesn't take long - in 2000 the population was 306...and it's dropped steadily since then).

Somewhere along the walk, Buster found himself some cockle burs.

Actually "found" is a very nice term...meaning covered head to toe!!!!! (ugh!)

It took Nancy, Stan and Mot well over an hour to get the bulk of them out of his fur.

Hello, nice to meet you....sorry about your dog!!!!! (sigh)

Once we hit Amarillo, we ate at Hooters....


(all the businesses in Amarillo had horses outside, painted custom for the company...kinda like the cows in chicago)

....then to a Target (for something to tie my hair back - man it was windy there!!), went to Cavendar's boot store, and finally purchased some sale items at Gander Mtn.

On our way into Amarillo, we passed a billboard on the interstate. Palo Duro Canyon State Park, exit 2 miles.

Hmmmmmm.....wonder what that is??

I pulled out the Blackberry and googled it. After reading a little about the place, we decided...."Heck, why not?" And off we went.











The place was gorgeous!!! Supposedly the 2nd largest (longest? biggest?) canyon in the states...next to the Grand Canyon. I've not been to many canyons, so I can't confirm nor deny that title.



I noticed a cave alongside the road (pictured above)....so we parked and hiked across the canyon and up to it.

You know how the dog found those cockle burs in 3.2 seconds? Well.....the canyon wasn't any more hospitable to us.

As we're walking to the canyon, I hear Mot cussing and slapping his arms and legs. I turn around to see him beating the crap out of himself...basically. He was covered in biting flies.

Not just a few...covered!!!!

I laughed.

Then " &%#*^%#*(&#)^*# "

Something bit my leg.

I looked down....I was covered in them!!!

I screamed like a little girl, swatting at myself....and the air......cussing about how everything there bits, stings, pokes, scratches and hurts!!!!!


Here's Tom swatting some more of those pesky insects!



Once we fully explored the cave (didn't take long, it wasn't too big)....we walked back out of the coolness of the shade, and it was all I could do to not full out run back to the Jeep.

Stupid bugs!!!! :-(

We passed a group (clutch, gaggle, family?) of turkeys along the way.



We have turkeys walking through our neighborhood. I have to stop and wait for the hens and baby chicks to cross the road every morning. Yet seeing turkeys in TX kept our attention for quite some time. We watched them wander up the hill, and out of site.

The Palo Duro was formed by a river...slowly eroding the landscape away. Because of this there are 6 different water crossings you have to traverse throughout your drive around the canyon.

From what they say, it's normally pretty darned dry.

But since grandpa had gotten sick, and then eventually passed....the area has seen record rainfall. His pastor thinks (and I agree) that grandpa put in a new rain order when he made it to the pearly gates.

You see...he loved his lawn...he loved his roses.

This was the man that painted his yard green when they put a water restriction on him.

This was the man that everyone jokes (but are slightly serious) when they say the town will have to redo it's budget for the year. Without grandpa watering his lawn...the utilities income into the town will almost fade away to nothing.

This is the man that keeps a lawn in New Mexico, where it rarely rains. To the point that you can google earth the town...and see one small patch of green in the wide expanse of brown. It's his yard.

So...back to the canyon. All 6 of the crossings had water flowing across them while we were there. One so much that they had it closed off!!!

Anyone who knows Mot, knows that water flowing over the road excited him to no end. He'd sit and wait for vehicles ahead of us to pass and get out of the way.



When it was his turn to cross the water, this was usually our view.





He giggled like a crazy person every time!!!! :-)

Weekend Update #30: New Mexico (part 2)

My grandfather was a HUGE model train hobbyist.

H.U.G.E.

Brandon and Lauren played with grandpa's trains as much as they possibly could while we were in town.

But they weren't the only ones the trains spoke to.





















It was hard seeing the trains dusty and dirty.

My sister and hubby and disassembling the who thing, and taking it home to put in their basement for the kids.

Grandpa would be tickled!!!

In 1995, grandpa met a man in town....there to paint road signs (or something like that). He was in need of a place to stay...and grandpa had the perfect thing to exchange for room and board.

Do you see the artwork on the wall around the trains?

The artist, Mr. Aksamit (per the signature on the mural) loved to cook. Grandpa was fine with it....but had only one request, that he never use the oven.

Grandpa said his oven was clean, and he wanted to keep it that way.

Now that's MY kind of housecleaning plan. Don't have to clean it, if you don't use it. :-)

Although, there were so many stories flying around about grandpa that I'd never heard...the oven story may have happened with one of the other thousand people he took into his house.

It's one of the things I love about Mot, in a way he reminds me of grandpa....never afraid to talk to a stranger.

After grandpa's memorial service, the ladies of the church put on a fellowship. Mot spent most of that time in the kitchen with those ladies...getting recipes and just chatting them up.

One of them stopped by grandpa's house later that afternoon, with a bag full of hot peppers. The same ones she'd used in her pico de gallo recipe. The recipe that sent Mot to the kitchen in the first place!!

That town is full of wonderful people!!!!


This is a picture mom found while going through grandpas drawer of pictures. Grandpa is in the chair, the man in front is the artist that painted the mural.

Weekend Update #30: New Mexico (part 1)

Well, even though our trip to New Mexico wasn't for happy reasons, we did what we always do....make the best of a bad situation. Grandpa would want it that way anyway!!! :-)

We set out first thing Wednesday morning. West then south through Nebraska....south, then west through Kansas. Across the tips of Oklahoma and Texas (about an hour in each state), then into New Mexico.




I'm crazy enamored by these things!!!! For some reason, wind generators have always gotten my attention. Something about them is majestic in a way. I can't explain it.


Control central. GPS (Daniel), iPod Nano, 2 Blackberry Storms, a Cabela's catalog.....and a partridge in a pear tree.


This is the view out the front window. In Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico.

Along the way, we stopped at a small Kansas town (Garfield, I think)....Mot was getting hungry...and we both needed to stretch our legs a little.


This is a picture of the bell I was looking at when I heard the commotion behind me.

We decided stop in Dodge City, KS on our way south. I mean, why not?!?!? Wyatt Earp and all that.

Dodge City, KS. What a big disappointment.

Per Wikipedia The 19th century buildings of historic Front Street were demolished in an "urban renewal" project in 1970.

Who does that???? You can't keep one?

When we got to Tucumcari, we checked into our hotel, and asked the front desk person where to go for food. We want sit down, not fast food, local food, and it must be good.

Without skipping a beat he said KBob's for steaks or Del's for anything else.

We chose Del's.



Unlike Dodge City, Del's didn't disappoint.

I ordered a beef chimichanga, and Mot ordered a chicken fajita. Both were amazing!!!!!!!

Although, it was at Del's where we first started fearing the worst. Who doesn't offer margaritas with their Tex Mex?? Is this a dry county?

Uh oh!!