Fitness and Media Updates

Just have to brag a bit, I am being SO good about exercising that even my WiiFit is complimenting me :-)

(couldn't be a marketing ploy; it must be sincere kudos to ME, right?)

Lately I have been watching DVDs while I exercise -- I do my usual yoga warm-ups, then I do "free step" or "free run" where the WiiFit still monitors my activity, but I can watch whatever I want to on the TV.

So far, I have watched all of season 1 of Grey's Anatomy, and now I am starting on season 1 of House. Yeah, I know, I'm a sucker for medical shows.

Both of these are series I have caught a few episodes here and there of, but have never followed. Man, is it FUN to learn the background behind the characters' development as I watch these early episodes!

It's also fascinating to see what elements of real medicine and real hospital procedures they are willing to give up in order to make the shows more compelling or interesting. My favorite so far in Grey's is how nurses are portrayed. (After working as a hospital nurse, I guess I am a little sensitive to this.) In one episode the nurses are all so uninformed that when a patient's heart stops, they all stand around (and there are way too many in the room) and say to the intern who is on his very first day of work, "what do you want to do???" Yet in a later episode they manage to convincingly explain to another intern, on about her 3rd day of work, how to crack another heart-stopping patient's chest open to manually reach in and pull out a giant clot. Uh-huh, I saw that kind of inconsistency daily amongst my nursing colleagues.

Then there was the time that they wondered who had done a surgery 5 years earlier. First off, no patient in for the type of problems this patient had, would be admitted without all their hospital records coming with them. But even if they weren't... In TV-Land, a super-busy intern walks down to the medical records office (which is about the size of my bedroom, for a huge teaching hospital), finds it unstaffed, starts poking around in file cabinets, and lo-and-behold finds the historical file in a cardboard box on top of a bookshelf.

Uh-huh, right. In reality, a computer request would be made down to the huge and super-busy medical records department, and the professionals would track down the file and have it delivered, the department would never be unstaffed at a hospital that size, and they would NEVER EVER EVER let a doctor - much less an intern - into their file rooms.

So I am having a TINY bit of difficulty ignoring all that kind of stuff and focusing on the story lines. But I am committed to the task, and if I work hard at it, I manage to enjoy it.

See? Truly something for me to brag about!

Am I alone here?

Does anyone else have this problem? And if so, can you give me hints on how to avoid it?

I have been SOOOOOOO good - I get up early every morning and do my WiiFit. I do a combination of yoga, strength, and cardio. I work up a sweat. I feel the burn. It's so great.

Then I go up and shower. Nice, cool shower. Ahhhhhhhh.

Then I get dressed, and start to dry my hair. With a hair dryer. Which makes me so sweaty it's almost as if I didn't shower in the first place. My hair dryer doesn't have a "cool" air option. If I let my hair air dry, it looks goofy. If I get back in the shower to rinse off the sweat I am back at square one.

Tips? Or I am just doomed to be sweaty all summer long?

Great Minnesota Get-Together, Day 1

Yesterday the boys & I went to the State Fair for Round 1 of the fun. We plan on going again on Friday, and I may well go a third time over the weekend while they are with their Dad.

Some of these pictures were taken expressly for my Mom, who is not attending the fair this year for the first time in I don't know how long. So the boar (with his stats) and the mini-donuts are really for her! This lamb was born early yesterday morning, she was one of triplets born to her mom, and they were featured on the KARE-11 6:00 news last night!
These baby pigs were just a few hours old, too. I could have stayed a lot longer in the Miracle of Birth Center but the boys don't care for the "freshness" of the births ... so they dragged me out!

One of the main reasons we went to the Fair yesterday is that the Jefferson Marching Band was playing ... my alma mater! They led the 2:00 parade with the same drum cadences, music, and enthusiasm that I remember from my time in the band 30 years ago. (am I *really* that old??? Yikes.)One of Ben's good friends is in the band this year. Here he is!
And here is that ol' fat pig. Or, I guess, Boar is his proper name.
Does he look like a "Squeaky" to you?

Tom Thumb Donuts ... ahh, a Fair staple. We did think they had decreased in quality a titch since last year. Will probably have to try them again on Friday to make sure we didn't just get an aberrant bag.
After the parade we joined the marcher and his family, plus my nephew Conor (who works at the 'All you can drink MILK' booth) and wandered the streets.
Great fun was had by all!

50th Anniversary Party

And here are my parents now :-) And the family (Katie wasn't there, she had to be at college for move-in day as she is an RA.) (I don't know why these photos all of a sudden are so grainy ...????)

Golden Anniversary

Today is my parents' fiftieth wedding anniversary. Their Golden Day! It has been such a joy to spend the day with them, reminiscing and laughing ... Tomorrow my brother and I are hosting a dinner for them, and the guests will be the majority of the people who were in their wedding party. Not a big group, but it should be a fun one.

They got married in Minneapolis; they were just 19 & 20 years old. They honeymooned in Duluth - their love affair with the North Shore has always been there - but came home a couple of days early because my mom was homesick!

They moved 16 times, lived in 6 states and 3 countries, owned 10 houses and built 2 (plus a cabin), and have travelled to 43 countries ... so far! Their lives together have been filled with love and a lot of laughter.

Congratulations, Mom and Dad!

Another Keeper

I have a new hero. Or maybe I should say he's an inspiration. Or maybe this video is just motivational, or touching. Or could be I am just a sap.

Whatever, I have watched it four times today and each time I tear up. So of course I want you to all have the opportunity to cry, too, or maybe to snort and say I am **way** too sentimental or just plain silly.

I don't even care! I love this, and I hope you will too. Just click here and see why I say Matt Harding should be the official United States Ambassador to the world. (and let me know in the comments if you got teary-eyed, too!)

Thanks, SME!

Opening this week ....

What a great summer! Olympics AND the Fair!

A note for all you married folks ...

Next weekend is my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. I am in charge of putting together some sort of display with photographs of them through the years.

Do you know how many pictures we have of the two of them together - just the two of them - in our boxes and boxes and albums and scrapbooks covering 50 years? About 7.

One of them was always TAKING the picture.

So get into the habit of having someone take photos of you and your spouse. Your children will thank you when it's your 50th wedding anniversary and one of them is trying to put together a photographic display.

History was made tonight.

Made me cry.

Colby was worried about me.

Wow.

Olympic Notes

I can't even post the picture here. This link will take you there.

It's not enough that we are seemingly getting 24/7 women's beach volleyball. Now they have cheerleaders.

Eww, eww and more eww.

Treat for Me!

It's been a while since I went yarn-shopping. It's good for what ails ya, don't'cha know.

This shop, Borealis Yarns, is in St. Paul near Midway. I had never been there before but thought I would take advantage of being in St. Paul for 3 hours with time on my hands while Ty had a class at the Science Museum.

It's a GREAT store. Three rooms of yarn ... one room is almost completely devoted to clearance yarn and SOCK YARN. My own personal kryptonite.

Everything I bought - which really isn't very much, you have to agree - is for gifts. So really, I am being altruistic and generous. The fact that I was salivating and really holding myself back from touching every skein in the store - that is just not important here.

I was thinking of others.

Photoshop Opp

Hey all -- if you have Photoshop on your computer, I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend taking Jessica Sprague's "Up and Running" online class - and it's even better now as she is offering it as "self-paced" which means you can putter through it however quickly or slowly you want to.

You may remember when I took it a while ago ... I did a couple of way cool layouts, like this, and this, and then never finished the class as I just got too busy. But the cool thing about Jessica's classes are that once you register, you have access to the materials forever.

So one of these days I will go back to the lessons and go through them all again.

But - seriously folks - this class is the best deal online. Give it to yourself as a treat.

Olympic Notes

OK, I have already stated that I am, and have always been, a huge fan of the Olympics. That said ... I can definitively say there has NEVER been as much coverage of women's beach volleyball as the executives at NBC seem to think we need this year.

The best house on the block

Wow, I wish I had had this house growing up, or had built a house like this when my boys were small. See more pictures and read about it here.

Olympic Notes

I was moved to tears while eating lunch today.

And yes, the boys thought I was pretty weird. But they kind of got it, too.

In the men's individual kayak race, the tiny nation of Togo won their very first Olympic medal. Not first for this year. First EVER.

Imagine. Being the athlete - Benjamin Boukpeti - who brings the first medal ever to your homeland. Imagine being in Togo, watching with bated breath. I talked of getting up off my bed to cheer for the US Men's swimming team the other day - but that was the US swimming team, which wins medals ALL. THE. TIME.

This was a historical moment. Ben said "That guy will be a hero at home." Understatement. This guy will be a national treasure. This guy will be the inspiration to athletes from tiny countries all over the world. This guy surely made his mother cry. This guy made THIS mother cry.

I do so love the Olympics.

Olympic Notes

MSNBC shows the Olympics, too, in addition to mainstream NBC. I don't usually watch this channel. The commentators are clearly used to presenting to a different demographic than the one I fit into.

Speaking of a Japanese male gymnast: "Just look at those arm muscles. He's ... He's ... Well, he's SCARY strong."

Speaking of a kayaker: "Look at him go! He's going CRAZY fast."

Yeah, that's how I am used to hearing Olympic athletes described.

Olympic Fever!

I have always been an Olympic nut. I have so many memories of watching the events every four years (I am still not entirely happy about the switch to the every two years' rotation of winter and summer. I know it makes the Olympics come more often, but there is something magical about having all the events happening in one calendar year ...) and I measure some portions of my life based on the Olympics. For example, I know I was living in Norway during the Games as I remember being in a pretty high-powered business meeting one day and noticed everyone getting slightly fidgety until the man running the meeting said, as he pulled a television set into the conference room, "I hope no one minds if we stop our meeting to watch 'our girls.'" The Norwegian women's cross-country ski relay team was favored to win the gold, and the entire country stopped everything - including big, important business meetings - to watch. And they did win the gold.

Then there was the summer games 12 years ago when Ben was a toddler. He and I and my mom sat down in the family room watching gymnastics, and every time a gymnast finished a routine, you know the stance - feet planted firmly together, back arched, arms triumphantly in the air - well, little 18 month old Ben would do that, too!

So I am thrilled to be watching the games again this week. And this year will be remembered forever as the time the Olympics were in the place my friends just moved to, and because I have a "3-degree" link to the star gymnast of the year, Shawn Johnson.

1. I am friends with another Shawn Johnson, a resident of Bloomington

2. My Shawn Johnson is married to Patrick Johnson.

3. Patrick Johnson is gymnast Shawn Johnson's first cousin.

So that makes me PRACTICALLY family, and I feel the closeness every time I see her perform!

And then last night I was whooping in my bedroom, after just having said good night to the boys (and they came running to my room to see what was happening) as the men's 100m freestyle swimming relay happened. If you missed it, it's worth finding somewhere online to watch. The announcers were saying, before the race started, that the Americans would win the silver in this event, as there was just no way they could pull off a win over the French team, the favorites to win. The French team was quoted as saying "We're going to SMASH the Americans - it's what we came here to do!" And ... yes, the magic of the Olympic Spirit came through, and the silver underdogs came from behind in a truly yell-at-your-tv kind of moment, and with 8/100 of one second to spare, the American team won.

THIS is why I love the Olympics.

Hillmans Arrived!

I just spent some time instant messaging with Carla, they have arrived safely and are starting to unpack and explore their new neighborhood. Folks from the school have brought over all the necessities to make do until their belongings arrive, and other than the weather -- terrifically hot and humid -- all is going great!

I am having such fun watching the Olympics, knowing the Hillmans are right there (somewhere) in Beijing, too! I am planning on visiting them while they are there, so it's really nice to get to see so much of their new home right here on my television.

Carla said she would blog and post pictures ASAP. For now I am just so happy to have heard that they made it safely!

Computer Game Whiz!

Ben took an advanced computer game development class at the Science Museum this week. The students created a game using the MIT tool Scratch. So I am told ... this is all foreign to me.

Ben's game can be found here.

I keep falling in the water, though I did manage to win once. The directions are in the Program Notes, which on my screen are way at the lower right corner. On the screen he developed the game on, the notes showed up at the top. Look for them to learn how to play!

I am quite impressed!

Hillmans on the MOVE!

Right this very minute, the Hillman family is on an airplane heading to Beijing. They left Minnesota this morning, had a brief layover in Chicago, and now are en route to the far East. It was so terrific to have them here this summer, and it was not as hard to say goodbye this time as it was when they left for Tanzania - probably because they will be back here more often on home leave over the next three years.

I expect it will be a while before Carla starts blogging again from their new home. They arrive on Saturday, have Sunday to start settling (living out of suitcases as their shipment of belongings won't arrive for 8-10 weeks) and then Monday morning Mark starts work. A week later Carla starts her job, and the kids start school.

They have an apartment already (or townhouse, maybe?) which is just a short walk from a grocery store which stocks a lot of American foods. There is also a Domino's and a Starbucks, so they will be able to live on pizza and coffee for the first few days if need be!

I can't wait to read all about their new adventures!

Big arts day yesterday

Yesterday I was an audience member for a large number of hours. In the afternoon I went to see Brideshead Revisited, the film being advertised for "intelligent viewers." Then last night I saw the new musical Little House on the Prairie at the Guthrie.


Brideshead was a fascinating film. I had never seen the older movie, or read the book, so I really didn't know the story at all. I saw commercials showing an old English manor, and that it starred Emma Thompson. Enough for me. In case you are as ignorant as I was, I'll fill you in on the gist of the storyline. Charles meets a young man at Oxford on his first day there, a young man who is as different from Charles as could possibly be. Sebastian is from a rich family of nobility, whereas Charles lives with his father in a small flat near Paddington Station in London. Sebastian befriends Charles, and takes him to his family manor, Brideshead, and the rest of the movie is the unfolding story of how Charles becomes involved with Sebastian and his family over the course of ten years.


The drama of the story comes in the relationships the family members have with one another and within themselves. The struggles Sebastian and his siblings have, the sheer force of their mother's love, the search for happiness his father undertakes - all are presented with bold, stark frankness that made me really ponder the situations even as I watched to see what happened next. I found myself wondering how I would have handled each situation, imagining taking on each character in turn, and aching for the turmoil they went through. The movie (and, I suppose the original novel) does an amazing job of allowing you to identify with each character, becoming aware of the good and the bad, and the complexity inherent in life with strong beliefs.

I highly recommend it.


Then in the evening I went to the Guthrie. A good friend of mine took me to a Guthrie production a year or so ago, and that visit reminded me how much I love the theater, and how much I missed it. This year I bought a season ticket series for 8 performances. Little House was the first.


I almost did something unheard of. I almost left at intermission.


It's not that it was a bad play. It was cute. The actors did fine jobs. The young women playing Laura and Mary had incredible voices and it was a joy to hear them in duets. Melissa Gilbert plays Ma and it was thrilling to see her on the stage. Her voice is clearly not her greatest strength, but she held her own. Nellie Oleson stole the show with her trademark mop of golden curls (based on the tv actress) and the actor playing Almanzo was easy on the eyes.


But the musical itself was, well, just boring. None of the songs were toe-tappers, I can't imagine anyone left humming any of the tunes. The story was fine if you are as familiar with the books as I am, and I am pretty sure most of the audience members were, but they condensed so much into a 2 1/2 hour performance that there was really no room for any depth or character development. If you walked in as cluelessly as I walked into Brideshead, I can't imagine you would have enjoyed it. And since I knew how it ended, I really did contemplate leaving at intermission. Sitting home reading with the dogs was just more enticing-sounding. But I did stay, and the second half was mildly better than the first, so I didn't regret it. Much.


My favorite part of the entire performance was when they were portraying a horse race and the entire cast stood in back as the audience for the race. At one point they all acted in slow motion, and it was marvelous - absolutely perfectly done, from the oldest man to the youngest girl, they all moved in perfect synchronicity until you believed you were watching a slow-motion film. That impressed the heck out of me.


But that, really, disappointingly, was it. So I don't recommend this one.

Techie Wannabe

Yesterday I bought an iPod.

Just the shuffle, with the smallest memory. It will hold 240 songs and I was quite sure I don't even know that many.

Sure enough, I don't. First off, it took me way longer than I am willing to admit to figure out how to hook the thing up to my computer and get it so that it was ready to get things downloaded onto it. But e-v-e-n-t-u-a-l-l-y I figured it out (if you take out the half-hour I had to MOVE AWAY FROM THE IPOD to avoid screaming at it and smashing it with my fist, well, then it didn't take that long. I mean, probably not a world-record in slowness or anything) and then I got ready to load up all my favorite songs.

First off, three ABBA songs. After seeing Mamma Mia, no surprise there. Then there are a couple other songs I remembered from American Idol that I wanted. Then Footloose, as I cannot sit still to that song, and I want all these songs to be the kinds that make me smile and FEEL GOOD.

Then .... I was stuck.

I searched on a few band names I could think of (how pathetic is it that this was really, really tough for me??) and in the end, after over 90 minutes of trying to find music, I now have 11 - yes, ELEVEN - songs on my iPod.

Yeah, I'm a music guru alright.

This just in ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Friday it has held meetings with U.S. store managers warning them of issues that could arise if Democrats win power and pass a law that would make it easier for workers to unionize, but stressed it was not telling workers how to vote.


Phew. We wouldn't want anyone to think this company has control issues.

(full article by clicking here.)

Here I go again ...

I admit it. I'm an Abba-girl. I can sing almost any of their songs, and if there is room, I will be dancing, too. Maybe it's because I lived in Norway when they were at their peak popularity (and really, one of the 4 Abba members -Annifrida- actually is Norwegian, they aren't all Swedes ... that was very important at that time to anyone living in Norway ...)

I saw the stage production several years ago when it was here, and today I went to see the movie. Maybe it's also that I travelled around Europe, including Greece, as a young woman, and could certainly have imagined falling in love on a beach and staying there forever, that makes me such a fan of this show.

Whatever the reason, I love this play, this musical, this movie, these songs ... and Meryl Streep is incredible!

Things my dogs know

When I turn off the TV, it's time to get up.

When I put the stylus away on my DS, it's time to get up.

When I put pants on (as opposed to any other article of clothing), it's time to get off the bed.

When I say "OK" it's time to run to the front door just in case I follow the word with "let's go outside."

When I call the boys upstairs, it's time to stand by the door to the garage so no one is "left behind."

When I pick up a book, it's time for a nap.

Office Update

Well, I am apparently totally inept when it comes to modern photographic technology. I took some photos with Ben's camera yesterday, then put it in my pocket and got to work. I cleared out three bags' worth of paper to the recycling bin, and emptied a couple of shelves - not a huge beginning but I felt pretty good about it! Then I came upstairs to load the pictures onto the computer to post here, and they were gone. (cue scary music.)

Disappeared. Vanished. Like they never were taken.

I am totally clueless as to what happened, sorry!

Yee-Hah!

After my usual WiiFit workout this morning I decided to let it weigh me again ... haven't done that since day one, 3 weeks ago.

DOWN 3.1 pounds!

Break out the chocolate! um, err, maybe not the best way to celebrate ...

an Awwwwww moment

You have to check out this video of these twin babies playing in the backyard sprinkler!

I always say baby anythings are SO CUTE!!!

Hold me accountable, please

OK, this week I am going to clean out my office. All 42 square feet of it (give or take.)

I am between jobs right now and am determined to whip that office into shape. Only problem is, I really don't wanna. But if I write about it here, and know you are all watching, maybe the peer pressure will keep me motivated.

Tomorrow morning I will take some "before" photos. Friday I will take another set.

Hopefully you will be able to see some difference.

Another Book

When I was up at my folks', I borrowed a Wallace Stegner novel I hadn't read before (really!) - and it started out with a Norwegian character in Minnesota, so I thought 'fer shure' I would love it. I have read other Stegner books and enjoyed them greatly, but this one, Big Rock Candy Mountain, just did not draw me in, and in the end I read about a third of it and then skipped to the last chapter, and even that really didn't interest me.

I just discovered that the book is supposed to be autobiographical, which makes it slightly more interesting, but not enough to go back and actually read the whole thing.

Quite the disappointment.

Books

While at camp last week, I read Without A Backward Glance, by Kate Veitch. It's the story of a young (very young) mother in Australia who, one Christmas Eve, walks away from her family - husband and 4 young children, and never comes back. I really don't want to say anything more about it, even though more is told just on the back cover of the book, because I want you to have the delight of reading it yourself and the author unfolds the story so much better than I could here.

Then I read two of Barbara Kingsolver's books - both of which I had read before - The Bean Trees, and Pigs in Heaven. It's been at least 20 years since I read them, and I remembered I loved the books, but honestly, I could not remember anything else at all. So it was great to re-read them - and yes, they are still great books!

Then when we went back to my parents' to pick up Ty and the dogs, my Mom was reading Anne Tyler's Back When We Were Grownups. I looked at the title and said "Oh, I read that, it was really good... What's it about again?" because I realized I had no memory of that book, either, other than I was sure I had read it and I was sure I had liked it. So I re-read it that night (it's not a very long book) and it made me realize that there are a LOT of books out there that I know I have read already and enjoyed, and can now safely read them again and not know how they end.

Yeah, big-time senior moments here ...

Tigger or Eyeore

I just heard on the radio that Randy Pausch died today. He's the author of The Last Lecture, the professor who became a world-wide celebrity based on the way he chose to handle his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

I just went on YouTube and re-listened to his lecture, and have tears in my eyes knowing that even as I see him sharing his wisdom on my computer, his family is saying goodbye to him today.

His views on life, choices, and attitude are worth spending time reflecting on. But it really can be boiled down to one question he asks near the end of his lecture. He says you have to decide how you are going to live your life: as a Tigger, or as an Eyeore.

Love it.

At the end of the lecture I thought to myself "this is one truly great man." And now I am going to be more Tigger-like.

Where's the Advil?

Pain ... sore ... oww ...

I can attest to the quality of Wii Fit. My Tae Kwon Do instructor used to say it was his job to make the students hurt in new ways with each session.

Wii Fit would please him.

The Ben Patrol

A full 25% of the scouts in our group last week are named Ben. Whenever anyone needed something done, they yelled "Ben" and had a good chance of one of them being in ear-shot. Even the camp counselors just started saying "Ben" to any scout in our group, figuring their odds were pretty good that the scout they wanted would respond!

Afraid of heights, are you?

Here is the fire tower at the camp. It's 100 feet high (134 steps but who's counting?) and it shakes in the wind.

Part of the information our guide gave us was how deep the cement foundation it is secured in goes. Seems that is a common question.

And here we are at the top!

Some Many Point Photos

Here are a few photos from Many Point, the Boy Scout Camp we were at. It's a beautiful camp - has been the official Boy Scout Camp for Minneapolis-area troops since the late 1930's.

This is the beach where all the water activities took place. They had kayaks, canoes, sailboats, a water trampoline, and of course a beach for just plain 'ol swimming. During the morning and afternoon there were scheduled activities here, but in the evening everything was open for free time. This is Ben getting ready to sail during free time with Jeff, one of the older scouts who is more experienced with sailing.A bit of trivia for you - this camp, Many Point, has a larger fleet of Sunfish Sailbots (90 in total) than any other place in the US!
Here they are up close, and again from a bit farther away. Ben loved sailing, and got pretty good at it by the end of the week.

Wii Fit Update

Well, this morning I got on the Wii Fit ... it nicely reminded me I haven't been on it for 13 days. There's a good feature, guilt the user. And I did a full 30 minutes' worth, after which it cheered for me. This is the first time I have done the full yoga component and boy are my muscles tight! I can see a huge difference in what I can do today vs. what I could do when I was in yoga class or Tae Kwon Do. So I know what my goals are.

It's just SO NICE to go down the basement and get a good workout that is fun, too! I worked up a really good sweat, and got my heart rate up to a good number, and when I quit after a half-hour there were still plenty of options I didn't even try yet so I don't think it will get boring.

I'll keep reporting in here to keep myself accountable.

Friday AM Update

No rain for over 24 hours.

HOORAY!

Yesterday was a bit more exciting than we as the troop would have liked. One of our first-years was hiking in boots that frankly, to this mother, looked a bit too big and a bit too loosely tied, and the inevitable happened - he tripped on a shoelace and ended up breaking his arm. He spent a couple of hours in an urgent care clinic in Detroit Lakes, and his Dad drove up last night so that they can head back today for the surgery needed to repair the break. But the young man refused to leave until after his merit badge session this morning so that he could finish up the requirements necessary to earn the badge!

HUGE teachable moment, though, as now all the leaders throughout the camp are going around looking at campers' shoes and saying "better tie those up ... yesterday a kid didn't and he BROKE HIS ARM."

I am really enjoying getting to know many of the adult leaders and many of the kids. (Of course there are also a few I am eager to depart from.) The food continues to be great and plentiful, and now that the weather is cooperating, all is well. Ben is finishing up his Environmental Science work, First Aid, and Photography - he will still have a couple of requirements to complete after we return home, but he is very close. Last night I went with one of the boys I didn't know well up to Archery -- he had to have a buddy in order to go, and everyone else wanted to do water-related activities. Turns out this guy will be in Ty's class at school this fall! So that was a fun coincidence.

Tonight is the closing campfire, and tomorrow morning we have breakfast and then break camp and head out. Ben & I are both looking forward to long, hot showers, and then sleeping as long as we want to! We have a bugler in our troop who is just 11 years old but is very, very good. I have actually really enjoyed hearing the Reveille every morning, and Taps at night. But. Sleeping a bit longer in the morning is going to feel sweet.

Thursday Update

Well, we have gone 17 hours without rain but the skies are gray ... Did sleep well last night, though! The mosquitoes are in hog-heaven. I'm going to try to get a picture of everybodies' legs with all the red welts. Nas-tee.

We are looking forward to the end.

Even the turtles are crying UNCLE!

OK, it's Wednesday morning, 10:00, and I am hiding in the administration building where they have free wi-fi (I just learned this fact last night) because it is POURING outside.

Yes, rain. Or, as the staff says here, there's a little dampness on the grass.

We got here Sunday at noon. Ben & I had a pleasant journey across the middle of the state on small roads and in cheery sunshine. We arrived, got our tent up, settled in to the camp, and all was well! That night it was cool - but not cold - and we slept wonderfully.

Monday was crisp and clear and we spent the day going to merit badge classes in the morning and then Ben went to the shooting range in the afternoon where he got to experience and try out a lot of different historical weapons - he really enjoyed it. That night he went sailing with one of the older scouts in his troop and they had a fabulous time out on the lake.

Monday night we got in bed around 10:30 ... just as the thunder started. For the next 3 hours we had a HUGE thunderstorm ... I would try to find a more colorful way to describe it, but frankly, I am tired. It was massive. Our tent held strong and tight until about 1:00 AM when two drops of water came through and I braced myself for a deluge ... but then the storm blew over and we had a peaceful rest of the night.

Tuesday dawned clear and sunny, and the tent dried out quickly. Mid-day we had a few scattered showers but nothing worth getting the rain coat out for, and then we had a beautiful evening. Mosquitoes are everywhere, but other than that no complaints at all!

The food has been terrific. Very filling and quite tasty, too. Every morning adults can go into the staff dining area and get fresh homemade caramel or cinnamon rolls, and coffee. THEN we join the kids for the real breakfast. One day we had breakfast corndogs (pancakes wrapped around breakfast sausage on a stick), one day Belgian-style waffles, today bagel breakfast pizzas. Lunches have been hamburgers, taco salad ... dinners spaghetti, ham and baked potatoes ... and every meal has a dessert of some sort. So we are not losing any weight while here!

We aren't gaining any, either. Yesterday I wore my pedometer all day just to see ... I walked nearly 9.5 miles. And our camping area is near the beach, at the bottom of a hill, and pretty much everything else is up the hill - the showers, the dining area, many of the merit badge class areas ... so we are going up and down all day long. Some of the paths are mud and rocks, some have actual steps, but all are steep!

This morning we awoke to rain - a gentle drizzle. It stopped as we walked to breakfast, and we hoped we were in for some sunshine. Not to be. While we ate, the drizzle came back and quickly escalated into a full-blown rain storm. So another leader and I got our computers after we got all the boys to their first merit badge class of the day, came here to the Admin building, and I am sitting here feeling a bit guilty that I am inside where it is dry and I know the boys are out there walking from class to class, getting SOAKED. But it wouldn't help anything if I got wet, too, right? That's what I tell myself anyway. It is supposed to rain all day today but tomorrow and Friday should be clear and sunny.

PLEASE keep your fingers crossed for us.

Last night Ben & I agreed that we were having a good time. Tonight may well be a different story. I hope he is able to keep his spirits up when soaking. We were supposed to do archery this afternoon but I am sure that won't be happening. And tonight is our night to climb the fire tower, but that may well be cancelled, too.

I have been taking a lot of pictures so will eventually get some posted here (we don't have the connecting cable to put them on the computer here.) I will be back to check email and comments again probably Friday morning so will report in on the water-tightness of our tent (so far, so good ... but I am worried about the length of the rainfall today ...) and the level of our spirits!

Friday Night Lights

Greetings from the Great "Up North"! The boys, dogs & I arrived here (my folks') around 8:30 tonight. At 8:30:05 the heavens opened and we were soaked to the skin just running the 20 feet from the car to the front door. The "lights" we are seeing here are magnificent bolts of lightning over Lake Superior. Tonight, very aptly named.

This follows our excitement yesterday when a violent yet brief storm swept through Bloomington, and our power went out. For 24 hours. Just long enough for us to be miserable and for the refrigerator to completely warm up.

But we got our freezer contents safely to a friend's house so all would stay frozen, and we emptied the refrigerator, and then left town. Just another day in the life of this suburban housewife.

Sunday I deliver Ben to Boy Scout Camp. Six months ago when I signed up to stay in the tent with him for a week it sounded like a grand adventure. With two days' worth of nasty storms, it's not sounding quite so good to me right now. I will be taking close note of which hotel is closest to the camp ground, just in case.

Hopefully tomorrow will be sunny and beautiful.

It is July, after all.

FINALLY!

Today the boys & I were out running errands and, on a whim, stopped at the Mall so Ben could check out Legoland for what's new. When we got there, we decided to walk around for a while - using the pedometer to make it feel like exercise - and we walked past the store "Game Stop." I glanced at the name above the door and for some bizarre reason read it as "Canine Soup." I know, not even close. But it made me giggle, and when the boys asked me what I was laughing at I stopped to explain, and somewhere in that 2 minutes we were standing I got the urge to go in and say to the sales clerk (who looked to be about 14) "I don't suppose there is ANY chance you have a Wii Fit, right?" ... and being the realist I am, I started to walk away before he even answered ... because when he said YES, I about fainted!

So there we were, in the middle of the Mall, and I could not stop grinning and saying "WE HAVE A WII FIT!!!!!" Over and over. The boys begged me to stop.

So. Came home and tried it out. Ty went first, being the Wii champion he is. The body testing was not pleasant. It weighs you, did you know that? And then it asks your height and your birth date. Then it tells you the bad news. Both Ty & I are NOT in the "good health" category, and both of us have body ages above our real ones.

But ok, that's why we bought it.

We made the rule - well, *I* made the rule - that NO ONE, and that means NO ONE, is allowed to talk about what they see on the Wii. What happens on the Wii stays on the Wii.

Anyway, both Ty & I did about a half-hour's exploratory playing-slash-exercising with it, and you know what? It felt good. Like a good workout, fun, and worthy of feeling of accomplishment and pride at the end.

And THAT, really, is why I bought it.

My least favorite modern convenience

People sometimes wonder why I hate the phone, as if I am some sort of weirdo. Well, I am not alone. I found this post and after reading it and the ensuing comments, I feel like I am in VERY good company!!!

Phone-haters of the world, unite!

My Inner European

This is only because Norwegian was not an option ...

Your Inner European is French!

Smart and sophisticated. You have the best of everything - at least, *you* think so.

Who's Your Inner European?

Ta-Da!

This is the end product of my afternoon's activities. Well, not this EXACTLY but one just like it (I am too lazy to go take my own photo and upload it here. Much easier to find a photo someone else already took. And this is what it will look like when there is snow ... which, according to the wonderful weather in Minnesota, could be in as little as 3 weeks.)

It's way fun.

I did it!

You may remember a while ago I was contemplating leaving a job which was not fulfilling ... well, today I turned in my letter of resignation, and I feel great! I have been agonizing over the decision for a long time but know that the job has not been good for me and even though I hate the "quitting" part, I know it's the right way to go.

I will still be working with the group for a while to ease the transition, but the end is in sight and it does feel good.

Now I get to clean out my office (some people would call it a closet but I like to think of it more officially) and --- biggie, here --- figure out what comes next!!!

They're Here!

Met all the Hillmans yesterday at the airport ... they are happy to be in Minnesota again! And we are happy to have them :-)

Especially the boys, because now they finally can play TOGETHER.

Today's Laugh

Laughed til I got tears ... check out this YouTube video about a little girl who loves her goldfish crackers.

Snapping Turtle

On Tuesday, I took the dogs out as usual in the morning, and right at their favorite rock-to-pee-on was this HUGE turtle! I pulled them away - they didn't seem to notice it, nor it them, but I freaked out a little bit. I went back to the house and called Ben to come see (Ty was at a friend's) and he came out and agreed with my take on it -- it was a female laying eggs. He went back inside and verified online that yes, this is a snapping turtle, and June is the prime time for egg-laying. She seemed to be in a bit of a trance, not noticing us at all. We watched her for a while, then went inside, and when we came back out about an hour later she was gone and the egg hole was neatly filled in.

According to the website Ben looked at, hatching can occur anywhere from 9 - 18 weeks from now ... that's quite a window, but we will be watching for signs.

I was amazed at how far away from the pond she was (almost 2 blocks in a residential area) and how quickly the whole thing went - I mean, I don't know when she started digging the hole, but if I had gone a different direction that morning for the walk, we never would have known.

We have been trying to get the dogs to pee there now to keep raccoons and foxes from finding the eggs. Don't know if that will actually work, but we thought it sounded good. If we do see baby turtles I will get photos!!!

Today's Focus ...

... is on the Hillmans, who are beginning their journey which takes them from their much-loved home in Arusha, and will eventually land them in their new home in Beijing ...

As I write this they are scrambling to gather up all their luggage, and will shortly be heading to the airport in Arusha ... they will fly to Dar es Salaam, then to Amsterdam, then to Minneapolis.

Send your best thoughts for a safe journey their way!