Half way there

I'm half way to my destination after setting off on Friday night. Friday's trip was a fast one across I-90 from Rochester, MN to Sioux Falls, SD, then north on 1-29 to Brookings, then west on 14 to Volga.

Saturday I traveled through Laura Ingalls Wilder's homestead via DeSmet, SD then north on SD Hwy 25 to Webster, SD. Today I followed SD Hwy 12 from Webster to Isabel, SD. That's halfway.

Tomorrow I'm doing my long stretch from Isabel to Helena.

Average air temp: 105...without the heat index.
Miles driven: around 680
Max gas price: $3.04
Average speed: 70 (I had a lot of two lane state highway)
Bottles of water consumed: at least a dozen
Gatorade: 3
Bags of beef jerky: 2
Other road goodies: Half a box of Cheerios, Snickers with Almond

I'll be able to see my mountains by the time I make Billings tomorrow :) Yeah!

Destination

I'm on my way!

Bonus HNT...disgusting

I'm heading to Montana on Friday for two weeks so I'm not sure if I will be around for HNT unless Os has something crazy planned so here is a bonus feature this week...I'm She-Ra!!! 90 degrees, 70+% humidity...our three games in the C league and then, because I'm nice, three games as a last minute fill-in with an A league team. I'm hot (yup, that's boob sweat!), sandy, and sweaty but feelin' good!

Eagle River HNT

The weather didn't necessary cooperate the whole weekend but we made due anyway and ended up having a great time. This is day two on the upper chain of lakes. Yes, it was sprinkling so we had the top up. Didn't stop us from cruising around though.

The day before was much nicer with sunshine after about 2 in the afternoon. The guys tubed and got out the knee board. I only left the boat for "nature's calling"...the thought of being pulled behind a boat at 40 mph strapped to something by my knees or feet has never appealed to me. Nonetheless, I still managed to hurt myself. Foot slipped through the ladder getting in scraping up my calf. Now...look closely and you can see that my left side took a beating too. Have a strange bruise on my arm too but couldn't get a good picture of that one.

























It was all fun though. Bruises fade, scars are cool, no permanent damage. The sun, the pine tinted air, the cottage, the dogs, the guys, food...all in all, a fabulous weekend away.

Up next...Montana by Monday! YEAh!!!

Late HNT

I hate softball. It is too slow, not enough going on throughout the game. Plus, I'm not very good at it because I have never played it much. Thursday night's I play softball for a team that is short on girls and more out for fun than to win. Tonight, I had a kickass game. I hit the ball...TWICE..and with good solid contact. But the best part of the night was a kickass catch I made in mid-centerfield. Running, reaching and nearly tackled by my centerfielder who literally spun around me as I caught the ball. Sweetness!

That only made the sports week better...last night, short one player we crushed our opponent in volleyball. the 5 of us were on fire.

So for HNT...the golden arm! Happy HNT

5 things

Lime had another great meme so since I'm eating and blogging tonight (see her last list) I thought I would play along.

5 Things always in my purse:
1. Migraine meds
2. Key ring with all those discount cards
3. Gum
4. My Barnes and Noble Member Card
5. My lime green pocketbook

5 Things always in my wallet:
1. Driver's license
2. Old movie stubs
3. My Mayo High School fundraiser card
4. My debit card
5. My scrapbook store punchcard

5 Things always in my refrigerator:
1. Eggs
2. Out dated milk...I never get around to finishing a whole jug myself
3. Cheese
4. Beer
5. Something that should have been thrown out...a long time ago

5 Things always in my closet:
1. Too MANY CLOTHES!!!!
2. A belt I never wear
3. Four rubbermaid drawers
4. A tub of unmatched socks
5. Cat hair...in every corner

5 Things always in my car:
1. Road Atlas
2. Gas receipts
3. CD player with a cassette converter (my car is"pre-2000")
4. Window scraper
5. Snow boots and a blanket

5 (or more) Things always on my desk:
1. A collection of ceramic cups I made in college for "desk stuff"
2. Stack of books in my 'to read' pile
3. A printer currently out of ink in it's printheads...might just buy a new printer, there are four of them at $59 a piece!
4. A piece of glass with a skier and mountains etched on the INSIDE...cool, uh??
5. Coupons I never remember to put in my purse

5 People to tag...Yeah, you :)
1. You, in the blue shirt
2. You, the one blogging nekkid
3. You, the one eating and blogging
4. You, the one with insomnia
5. You, the one desperately searching for a blog topic

I'm melting...

No, I didn't get drenched with a bucket of water and melt into a puddle of ooze. It is just HOT here! 90+ degrees with a heat index because of the 85% humidity well over 100. If it would just RAIN! Please...

The weekend was a smashing success even though we didn't get to all of our fun plans. WICKED is phenomenal. If you have read the book, seeing the sarcastic Elphaba and the ditzy Galinda live only highlights their personalities. If you haven't read the book, it's not quite the same story so I would still wade through the big text. The music, the costumes, the make-up was all wonderful. The boy has been to a lot more Broadway shows than I have and he thought this was the funniest one he has seen.

Dinner was fabulous, the hotel great. Tickets to BODYWORLDS were another story. Didn't make it but no big deal. No same day ticket reservations on the phone, an hour to stand in line to get from the door to the desk. Forget it! It is there until September so we will have plenty of time to go see it. Instead we hung out more at the Mall of America. I have a new iPod Shuffle thanks to the Apple Genius desk (nope...they couldn't fix it either, just exchanged it). So tonight when I was sweating away in the gym I at least had my own music.

Made it home last evening and stayed in with the air cranked! Is tehre an end to this heat??

Weekend plans...

I get the boy fro a whole weekend!!! He's been gone a week and busy the week before and I 've been a stress basket from hell because of everything else going on in my own life. We have had this weekend planned for a while and it couldn't have fallen at a better time.

The first thing on the agenda? WICKED: A NEW MUSICAL. Ever wonder how one became good and the other one bad? Well, we will be in the third row at the Orpheum Theater to find out!

Yes, we are both geeks. We will not deny it. Sunday morning we will head to the Apple Store, one of our favorite stops at the Mall of America. I'm an iPod Shuffle. Mine has a case of the "green orange blink of death". Not good. The boy got it for me for my birthday in October so it is still under warranty. Hope to exchange it and have my gym music back again.

Last but not least, there is an exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota which I can't pass up. BodyWorlds is a group of partially and mostly dissected HUMAN CADAVERS! Yeah, baby. They are posed in various acts and I can't wait to see them.

HNT...Shock Absorbed!

Guys, I'm sure wearing a plastic cup over the family jewels is uncomfortable? But...the new Victoria's Secret "Shock Absorber" sports bra, well...it has to be right up there in the uncomfortable as well. Check out the before and after of this baby....

It isn't Kevlar but it damn well could be!

Yes, that is a METAL buckle on the side. Absolutely no jigglin' here!

These are about 10 minutes after it was removed, I played volleyball in it, went to bible study and ice cream and then came home. So a total of about 5 hours on. OUCH!!! BUT...It's great for jumping, running, and diving.

The things we girls do...

St John's Block party

Rochester, MN doesn't have a lot of night life. It's not so bad though because Minneapolis and LaCrosse aren't all that far away and there's plenty to do there. But check out this gig...

Ticket in advance to St John's Block Party $12
Number of drink tickets we bought $10
Friends hanging out 6
Dinner at TGIFridays $$$$$
Getting to see Soul Asylum live 2 days before their CD release AND in the second row PRICELESS!

That's right. Second row of the pit with the band live. It was awesome. Their new CD is going to be great. Check them out on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno this week.

Next weekend...Wicked at the Orpheum Theater!!!

Going home..

The reason for the long road trip this weekend was to see my mom. She went back into the hospital on Friday with a kidney infection due to a kidney tube that came loose. She had high fevers, low blood pressure, low red cell count. IV antibiotics later, fluid and 2 units of blood later she is stable. She is going home tomorrow with the decision made to NOT do any more chemo. She will get pain pills and oral antibiotics to keep infections at bay. It's the right decision but I'm scared.

Road trippin' HNT

The quality of this photo isn't all that great but it's the best I could do at 85 mph on a two lane South Dakota State Highway at 8:30 in the morning knowing I had a 600 mile drive a head of me. This is a sign of how I know I'm getting close to home.

It's not "technically" patriotic but I think it is also a symbol of a holiday weekend like the 4th of July. People going home, Midwesterners stopping long enough in the fields to gather for picnics, roadtrips, and commaderie. So Happy 4th of July! If I see ya on the road, I'll wave :)

470 miles of my trip is on interstate. Hundreds of poor souls stuck on I-90 across South Dakota with nothing to look at but hoping not to run into a highway patrolman as they fly across the prairie. But when I pull off on Highway 63 north I know I'm almost home because the instant I'm off the interstate I am greeted with this wave for the next 130 miles by nearly every car and definitely EVERY trucker.

You don't take your hand off the wheel, it's propped on the top of the steering wheel comfortably. You simply lift up your thumb, pointer and middle finger in a half wave. Sometimes you nod your head a bit too. But however it's done, it's a general "hi" to everyone you pass. It's an acknowledgement.

Now, when I took this picture there wasn't a car coming to wave at but I wanted to take the shot while I remembered and didn't want someone thinking I was really a lost out of stater with a camera if I took it when I really was meeting someone on the road. So "hi" to everyone this Fourth of July week!

A cold one...HNT

It's summer time so that means sand volleyball and cold brews. Tonight we pulled out three more wins to give us a record of 15-0. Cause for a bit of a celebration. So before I wash off all that nasty sand here's a "mug shot" with my toesies.


Does that mug look similar to anything you've seen before? I think it's owner is missing something. Guess I should put it in a box and get it to him since his birthday was months ago :)

Ever just want to look at someone and say, "duh" and mean it with every once of your being?

Wow...where did the weekend go?

I give up...

In spite of being post-call on Friday I was at work until 5 pm. Then a nap for an hour, a shower and a nice dinner and a movie. We went to Click. Studies have shown anticipation of seeing a funny movie actually causes beneficial increases in endorphin levels. I anticipated a funny movie. By the end of it, the boy was holding my head on his shoulder as my mascara ran down my face onto his sleeve (at least it was a black shirt). I went spill the beans on the movie but there are lessons to learn in it and it isn't all Adam Sandler funny.

Saturday we slept in late. Really late. It was 11:30 before I was out of the shower and moving around. After catching up on my friend Dan's world travels I sat out to run a few errands. I'm cat sitting for a friend, wanted to find a pair of denim capris, and needed to get groceries both for myself and for the massive pot of chili to be made. That got me home again by 5. I made a Chicken Club Ring for dinner with salad and fruit. After making plans to go to a street dance, our plans were foiled by mother nature. When 11:30 rolled around and our friend called to say she was off work, we had been asleep on the couch for over an hour! Oops.

We made plans to meet for lunch and then fell back asleep with a movie on. Eventually made it to bed. Today, it was up in time for 10 o'clock church. Joined up with everyone afterwards for lunch. From lunch to home to pick up the townhome president to go pick out storm doors, then home for 20 minutes before going back to the church for a meeting. Then to the boy's house for a couple hours. Then Target for a few non-grocery things.

Now, chili's made, garlic bread is warming, and I'm about to put it all away and go to bed! the rain all weekend has made me grumpy, the running around made me tired and I'm just going to curl up with my cats and a book and call it a night.

have a great week

Couldn't be more on the dot...

The PJ's You Are Most Like: His Shirt

You're a loyal and caring girlfriend who can't get enough of her man So much so that you love to have him with you 24-7 And when he's gone, wearing his shirt is the next best thing

What Kind of PJ's Are You?

Daily ritual

There are a lot of things we do every day (or should do every day)...brush our teeth, go to bed, hit the snooze button, read before bed, feed the dog/cat/fish. Little habits and quirks that make us who we are. There are a lot of things we do every month...pay the rent, the mortgage, the car payment, call that good friend, etc. Weekly tasks include taking the garbage out, maybe a weekly league sporting event. Some of these things we enjoy doing, some we have to do and some we just despise all around.

I have a new "ritual" that is starting to bug the hell out of me. I've never been the type to get my mail every day. I usually go out to the mail box about every other to every third day. What I end up doing with my mail every time I do collect it out of the box is stand at the kitchen counter with the cupboard door open to get to the garbage can so that I can throw 80% of the mail I get out!

Many of you in my age group have student loans. Well, the feds are hiking the rates so every single financial agency (bogus or not) is sending out teasers to get you to consolidate with them. My loans have been consolidated and locked in since 6 months after I graduated college and grad school. Then there are all the credit card companies that know you have student loans and can't spend your own money so why not spend their's. I also get an absurd amount of medical product related media about the newest and latest miracle cure/device/pill for this, that, and the other thing. Then there's the mortgage companies that want to get you a better interest rate. The local business' with the "fine print" coupons that don't really do you any good anyway.
So, I'll continue to wait two to three days to collect my mail. I'll continue to have to throw 80% of it out. And they wonder why the rain forests are disappearing!

Split...HNT

This is how I feel of late...split, divided, separated. Too many emotions to sort out...happy, sad, prayerful, tired. Sometimes all at once, sometimes alternating...all the same being.

Happy HNT

The subconscious mind

The subconscious mind is a horrible, evil thing. When one has full use of their facilities, it can easily be supressed. Things we chose to forget can easily be tucked away. Raw emotions, unimportant tid bits of information, pain...if fully aware can be hidden safe in the recesses of our mind.

Add a little stress (a dying mother, an ailing grandmother), long hours at work (it's trauma season, duh), travel (a conference, a marathon to work), trouble sleeping (it's too hot, the brain won't slow down) and those carefully tucked away what-nots seep slowly out of their crevices into one's subconcious. So when the exhaused carrier finally reaches the point where she sleeps deeply, the subconscious puts on a dreadful show completely with emotions, smells, sights, and sounds.

This invasion of my finally restful nights leads to a return of many doubts and fears subsequently affecting my relationships with those closet to me. Remember the post a few HNT's ago where I lamented about my inability to utter those three little words to the individual I now love? Last week in the middle of a dream I walked up to him at his kitchen table, put my arm around his shoulders and said "I love you" clear as day and without hesitation. That woke me right up! God, I wish it rolled off that easily when I was awake.

Three years ago last week the person I loved and had vowed to spend my entire life with handed me his wedding ring and left two weeks later. I've mostly moved past that. Well, now that it's that time of year again the subconscious mind where all that pain and heartache has been has started seeping. Two days in a row now I have been awakened in sweats and out of breath from dreams of my current relationship crumbling in front of me. Scares the shit out of me and makes me doubt and question even the slightest suggestion of anything not being just right.

I HATE THAT!!! It's a weakness. It's a sign I don't have control of that piece of my head. It's a testimony to what I can't say when I am in control. It's a whisper of what I should say. It's a trap leading me into self-doubt. The conscious ,logical, level headed part of my brain tells me everything's fine, life is hectic but it's all okay. Now how do I explain that to those that I need to explain it too...

They ran...

I don't have any pictures loaded yet (I have to wait until my sister gets home and downloads them to share) but I've made it home from Grandma's Marathon weekend in Duluth, MN.

It turned into a terrible race day. Air temps topped 90 degrees and the humidity was through the roof. Bad all around for runners. The top male finished in 2 hours, 14 minutes, and 30 secs, top female in 2 hours, 33 minutes, and 39 seconds. Average time overall was 4 hours, 30 minutes, and 25 secs. A South Dakota runner that my sister was aquainted with was running with the Elite group to qualify for the Olympic Trials. He finished 13th overall and missed qualifying time by 3 minutes. He has another race or to to make it so not all is lost.

"Knowing" someone in the race was way different. All of us at the medical tent at mile marker 19 started yelling at him as soon as we saw him and he had no clue who we were. It was awesome. As he passed, my sister yelled out the special message from our acquitance and he gave us a smile and a thumbs up. We got all teary eyed! Marathon runners are crazy!

My favorite runner was a guy whose foot I took care of. He was 90% covered in skin grafts after having been severaly burned about 11 years ago. One of his graft sites on the botttom of his feet was split open. He had a blister parallel to it and I put a blister dressing over it and then. The graft edge was split open about a centimeter at it's widest point. I put four blister dressings down it's length to pull it together, taped around it to keep it on and put his sock back on and he was off. The guy was built like a brick shit house and amazingly good looking. Yes, good looking...skin grafts from head to toe and he was beautiful! I don't know his name, don't know if he finished, but something tells me he did!

My sister rubbed and rubbed on several runners to get cramps out. A couple had to pull out there but a lot more got back up after she was done and were back on the course. My aunt had a 50 something with chest pain and a bottoming out blood pressure so he got an IV and an ambulance ride. Overall a busy day and we were wiped out at the end.

On the home front, my own Grandma got her pacemaker and feels well enough to be grumpy! Mom is still at home, had chemo about four days ago and yesterday was pretty sick. Today she feels better.

Now a week with lots to get accomplished. I'll sit down later tonight and write my schedule out and it will be okay.