Hello from Saginaw, everyone.

It's hot here.  I heard the forecast was that it should be hot, and when we got here it was hot, and it still is hot.  Last night at about 10:30 was just nearly the perfect temperature... alas that it didn't stay that way!

There have already been three amazing things here so far:

*breakfast at a sane hour (8 am!)  ((Not during convention, alas, but I don't get up for breakfast during convention anyways, so I don't care.))

*none of the five of us in our room get up early.  I woke up (accidentally and went back to sleep as fast as possible) at 6 and no one else was up.  Wow, I think.  How nice.  :)

*AND.... drumroll... so far as I could tell (through earplugs and white noise) no one snores.  

Those are, of course, not the /really/ amazing things expected, but they will do for nice starters.  

Let's you and me go and ...

My new favorite words.  :)  

That was how much of Jonathan's conversations began this week.  

Aunty Leilani, let's you and me go - 

be excavators

hunt mean gophers

play in the pool

swing 

skate across the ice 

catch sharks

dig up this hole

Yesterday, he wanted me to go away  - just for the night, so he could have his bed back.  So he was trying to figure out how I could leave before bed, and when he ate breakfast, I would be back.  

Today, I said, "Hey, Jonathan, you get your bed back tonight!"  

He says, "No.  I want you to sleep here more nights."

"I wish that I could, but I have to leave."

"I am going to lock all the doors so that you can't get out."

Big 'awwww' in chorus.

I was such a good girl this week!  I went to the cycling class Darla teaches /both/ Wednesday mornings.  :)  Yay!  Exercise!  Go me!

We also painted Darla's kitchen yellow.  It looks really nice.  :)

In Billings now, Spokane tomorrow and Olympia Friday.

Clearly I am tired, or I would not (probably.. ok, ok, probably I would anyways!  Unrepentantly, too!) be inflicting this on you - but I was right!

Depending, of course, on your estimation of the value of your time; it really only makes sense to speed when the distance you have to travel is over twice the value of the speed you are traveling.  Otherwise, you don't save enough time (imo) for the possible ticket, not to mention the extra gas you'll need to buy, to bother.

Translation:  if the speed limit is 75, and you have 150 miles to go, you will only save 7.5 minutes by speeding up to 80.  The time you save only gets less as you have fewer miles to go.  With 100 miles to go, you save 5 minutes by going 80 instead of 75.  But if you have more than twice your speed value (75 mph and 200 miles to drive, for instance), you begin to save enough time that it might actually be worthwhile.  

Happy 1 am!

Have I mentioned before how I love Wyoming?  I thought I might have but, not being entirely certain I emphasized it enough, I figured it wouldn't hurt to say it again.  :)

Yes, I'm still up at this hour - there was a lightning storm going on, and it is just now moving away.  I stayed up to watch - and even got (by sheer luck!) two pictures.  As soon as I remember how, I'll post them here for your viewing pleasure.

It was the best lightning storm ever - the sky was lighting up non-stop; a strike several times every second, and a constant dull grumble of thunder.   A few bolts of lightning were bright enough that I think they permanently are seared onto my retinas.

J and I were Great Hunters today; we stalked meat-eating dinosaurs and mean deer with our water pistols.  Then we went fishing in the sky.  J caught several red lizards that he grilled with hot barbecue sauce for supper.  And I baked a cake.  (The cake was real. ;)  

Massive Drumroll!!!

I have *DUMDUMDUM* finally after I don't know and won't admit how many times of getting stuck in Wyoming for the winter (hmmm... you don't suppose there's a subconscious dealie going on here? ;) made it ALL THE WAY to Oregon City!  

Yes!  I have indeed walked, verified by my little yellow pedometer, from Independence, MO to Oregon City, OR!  Visit www.americaonthemove.org to see the trail for yourself!

Cheers and confetti and all that.

Of course, it's not /quite/ so impressive as it might be... I mean, I /could/ have actually made an effort to walk more each day, instead of simply choosing the 4 weeks during which I would be walking the most and counting them... but I don't care!  It counts!

I expect you all have entirely given up on me ever updating this thing.

Sorry!!

I can't claim the excuse that I was too tired - there were plenty of times when I was awake enough to type.  The problem is that I wasn't awake enough to think of anything to say.  ;)

So we had an absolutely wonderful convention at Ronan.  Wednesday morning, at breakfast, I was really feeling:  I want to quit work and go to convention!  Everyone else gets to take off and go to convention and I want to go too!  So it was a really good thing that Wednesday evening was when we all got to 'pack up' (more or less, heh; still plenty to do) and go to convention.  

It rained solid, starting Thursday morning and not quitting until Sunday afternoon (figures, eh?) BUT amazingly enough, it stopped raining Sun afternoon, and didn't start again until Monday evening - which was enough time to dry out and take down the ladies' sleeping tent, and the sidewalls of the mtg barn.  

Also, it was absolutely freezing cold.  However, as one lady said in her testimony, we're cold on the outside, but warm inside.  

And another really good week down at Cody - it was WARM, thankfully.  And the amazing thing there was that the wind stopped blowing Wednesday, and didn't start again until Monday.  ;)  Of course, I like the wind, so it doesn't bother me in the slightest that it blows; but everyone else was happy about it.  I spent a lot of time sleeping, I confess. 

And now we're at Manhattan, and it promises to be hot all week.  I'm scrambling for warm-weather clothes, as most of mine got inadvertently left in Missoula.  Wool skirts are wonderful for Ronan weather, but not so great for Manhattan-in-the-high-90s weather.  

And speaking of Manhattan.... dumdumdum... we got the list last night, and I will be in Helena.  :D  That's almost (but not /quite/ by a teenytiny hair) as good as Wyoming.  ;)  But then, it would be awfully hard to find anywhere as good as Wyoming.  Not that I'm biased or anything!

Righty ho - it's nearly supper time, so this will be all.  Until I remember, have time, and a brain all at once, and can write another post.