Catching up - Again!

I've been a busy lady!

I was in Missoula in August, with Karen Tenniswood. I really enjoyed being back there again; so nice to catch up with everyone.

The weather was really bizarre though. It kept swinging between really hot and really cold. So one day, Karen and I are driving by the river (hot day), and looking at everyone out enjoying themselves, and Karen says what fun it would be to go canoeing. A few days later, we are driving along the river again (cold day) - it doesn't look nearly so enticing! But not too long after, it's hot again, so I started looking for rentals. You can rent a canoe or a kayak fairly cheaply. $20-40 depending on how long you want it. But they wanted $1000 deposits!

Erm, I think. Not so doable, alas. But! We saw innertubes in Mary P's garage, and took note of them... and one morning, when it was supposed to get up to 98, we invited ourselves up to her house, and the three of us went floating down the river. I'm glad it was that hot, because the water was extremely cold.

Jane and Nichole returned from their various sides of the country at about the same time - just in time for Reuben's funeral - and we swapped places. Jane and I went up to Jay B's for a week of doing as close to nothing as possible. My 'nothing' included going horseback riding. (Bareback! Using only a halter!) It was great. Then a day or two before we moved on, we met Joe K's sister for a picnic, and went out kayaking. It looked like a lake but I think it was a large bay off the river. We saw an osprey and several eagles, and some really huge fish lurking down in the waterweeds.

That brings us up to starting mtgs Sunday in Charlo (last Sunday was the first), and me going to Mandan (I leave a week from today).

And Voila! For anyone who actually checks this as infrequently as I update it, I am updated! Current! Present and accounted for! Hooray!

I had a most interesting dream last night. I got to have a nice chat (alas, I've forgotten what all was said!) with the president and his wife. Apparently, they were in Bible study with us on Wednesday night, and a day or so afterwards, Michelle and I were chatting in the kitchen. (Don't know whose!). Mr. Obama came along after a while, and joined in. They were very pleasant people in my dream, I must say.

Why do people say 'sugar diabetes'? Is there another sort?

In other news, we tried to go camping Monday. We got driven out by clouds of killer mosquitoes. OFF did work... to the extent that it kept them hovering an inch above your skin instead of landing and biting. I have decided that what I really want isn't OFF, but DEAD. I'll spray it on my clothes and it will kill them on contact. Ha! Dead Mosquito!

It's a pity, too, because it was a beautiful location - by a lake up in the mountains - and gorgeous weather. I had the hike I planned to take up to a outcropping of rocks all figured out... I even slept reasonably well for Camping Out. No elk bugling in my ears until 3 am, no bears snuffling about. Only hordes of deer tramping through. I wish I could have somehow looked out without letting the mosquitoes in... they were really close, by how they sounded, and it would have been cool to see. So I was only awake from about midnight until 3 am or so - sleeping before and after-hand. Not bad at all.

Well, and I forgot waking up at 6 am by someone shoving the boat off the gravel to go fishing. I would never have believed that the sound of oars being dipped into the water could be SO LOUD. In my groggy state, it sounded like a moose wading through the shallows. A very big, very loud, very near moose.

Ah well. Next time, I shall be prepared!

Jen has inspired me. I love her spring-leaves background - and thought maybe I'd change to that. I couldn't find it though; but I found this! Look at that way cool map up there that my Suitcase is romping across so happily. Isn't it great? And I still have green and yellow, hooray!

New background color. I got tired of the old one. But... what do you think? Maybe too dark.

Hmmm.

Yeah, and all you guys with fancy stuff for your blog templates don't be saying nothing about mine being boring! ;)

I think people are getting way too paranoid about food safety. Ok, it's good to be careful, and prudent. No sense in taking risks. But.... BUT!
I just read in a magazine that you should put an ice-pack in your kid's lunchbox - not only because his tunafish sandwich might rise up and kill him (though mine never did), but because
Cut Fruit Is Perishable And Not Fit To Eat After Two Hours At Room Temperature.

??

Since when?

And for our Welcome to Cody Convention gift, we present....

ta-dum ta-dum

a scorpion in your bed!

Right, ok, so I didn't know that Cody even had scorpions. I am informed later that, yes, they do live there, but only down in the rocks, and they're only seen when it's really hot. It wasn't really hot. So one evening I come to my room, and pick up my pj t-shirt; and there, on top of my pants, is this tannish-colored bug. Funny looking bug, I think. Looks sort of like a really tiny scorpion. I lean over to scrutinze it a bit closer and it waggles its scorpion-like tail at me. This, think I, really really looks like a scorpion! Wow! Part of me is impressed that they are so (nearly) instantly recognizable from nothing more than descriptions and the odd picture - since I've never seen one in real life before, living, breathing and preparing to sting. The other part of me wants someone else to come and deal with this. I am NOT squishing it! I don't like squishing bugs (except mosquitoes) anyways; I'm certainly not squishing this. Besides, it might sting me through the kleenex or something.

In my surprise and unguardedness, I mention something, maybe a bit loudly, about this beastie in my bed, so Teri came along and bundled him up in kleenex, zipped him into a plastic baggie and dropped him in a trashcan. At this point, I began wishing I'd thought to take a picture before advertising his presence - but I'm not about to go fishing in the kleenex to haul him out just for a photo op! So no picture. You all can just imagine a very small (less than 1" long), dust-colored bug, with a big, curvy tail.