Life on the High Plains

So I'm taking this class right now called Network Enterprise Solutions.  The professor for this class is really into research papers--usually 4-6 pages every week.  This week, however, she wants a 6-10 page paper on setting us an Active Directory configuration.  Yawn.  Boring.  I'm doing whatever I can to avoid writing this paper.  I've started it, but every so often I have to wake myself up.  I thought I'd take a break and write a new blog. Yesterday I got to go to the county fair with a co-worker and Irv for the purpose of buying an animal during the livestock sale.  They provide a free lunch for the buyers and during lunch all the kids who are selling animals come by and try to talk you into buying their animal.  Some of them had great marketing techniques--cards, brochures, pictures, etc  My favorite was the cow shaped cookies and the lamb lollipops. Anyway, our budget doesn't provide for buying any of the grand or reserve ...

The summer olympics start on Friday.  I can't wait!  We are a family who loves the olympics.  My first memory of the Olympics was in 1972--Olga Korbut.  She was this cute, young girl from Russia who was amazing on the uneven parallel bars.  Since then my favorite summer Olympic sport is gymnastics.  Olga was followed by Nadia Comanici in 1976.  The first woman gymnast to earn a perfect 10--several of them in fact.  These days the scoring system is so complicated that it's probably impossible to get a perfect score. Then there was the 1984 summer Olympics in Los Angeles and Mary Lou Retton, the first American woman to win gold.  The Eastern Block countries boycotted the 1984 Olympics probably because the U.S. boycotted the 1980 summer Olympics. I never did agree with the 1980 boycott.  Athletes train for years and then when it's their time to compete, the U.S. pulls out for political reasons.  Really unfa...

Today is my darling husband's birthday.  He's a man who never wants anything which makes it very difficult for those of us who would like to by him a gift.  I think this cake will make him happier than anything I could buy.  By the way Irv, you don't have to watch what you eat during your birthday week.  So enjoy this whole cake by yourself! I'm afraid it's not going to be much of a birthday.  He's working nights and I'm working days so we will only see each for a few minutes tomorrow morning.  We will have a celebration next weekend and I'll bet Irv will want to go to Zios.  That's his favorite restaurant, but we don't get there very often because it's on the other side of town. Happy birthday darlin!  You're my best friend, the best man I know, and a great father and grandfather. 

Unfathomable. Sad. Heartbreaking. Shocking. So much sorrow. Hard to believe this has happened in Colorado again. Irv and I are regular movie-goers.  You can usually find us at the movies at least once per week, if not twice.  I can't imagine what those people in that theatre went through.  The movies are a place people go to get away from everything for a couple hours.  It's unlikely that Irv and I would ever be at a midnight premiere of a movie, but our kids are night owls so they've been to a few.  On Wednesday we took Mr. Beans to see Brave and there were people camped out in front of the theatre already waiting for the new Batman movie.  Just a fun thing to do. My heart goes out to all the families affected by this senseless act.

We made our annual trek to the Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo last night.  This year instead of eating junk food at the rodeo, we started at one of my favorite places--Pizzeria Rustica. You can't get food like this at the rodeo.  Although I will admit that I missed the junk food at the rodeo.  I was very proud of myself for making through the whole night without a bag of kettle corn. This year Mr. Beans wasn't the only one to ride the bull.  His mom gave it a try too.  There was a little debate about which one did better.  Mary was the winner at first because she only used one hand, then Mr. Beans went back for a second try and only used one hand.  I think it was a tie. Rodeo fans are the most patriotic people on earth.  All of the proceeds from the rodeo are donated to the military and their families.  There were two young ladies at the rodeo whose dad is a wounded warrior and mom is a blackhawk pilot in Afgh...

So I've been told that I need to blog more often...I haven't blogged in almost two weeks.  I certainly don't want to become like a couple other members of the family who hardly ever blog. So what has happened the last couple weeks? #1--My first baby girl is home permanently from Australia!!  Four years ago she left for a six month assignment in Australia and now she's finally back and engaged to Adam.  #2--Adam's visa was approved so he can now move to Phoenix to be with Dana.  Although I'm happy for me, I know Adam's family is probably sad to see him move so far away.  I know it's hard for a mom (or mum) to have her child so far away. #3--Mary and I took last Friday off to retrieve Mr. Beans from camp.  We couldn't get much information out of him, but apparently he spent all of his time in the lake.  We dropped him off in these swim trunks and six days later we picked him up in the same swim trunks.  I guess that's what boys do.  (G...

Mr. Beans is at summer camp this week.  We drove him up to Camp Shady Brook this afternoon.  I think he was pretty excited about spending a week at camp.  The theme for the week is "GI Joe (or Jane for the girls)".  He got to take some of Pappy's old army stuff with him so he would be properly camouflaged. It was about 90 degrees at camp which is unusually warm.  I think Mr. Beans' mom had a tough time leaving him at camp.  She wanted to make his bunk and unpack his things, but the parents (and grandparents) were given a thirty minute window to drop off their camper, take them to their cabins, and leave so Mary didn't get a chance to thoroughly get Mr. Beans prepared.  I think Mr. Beans was happy about that because he's at that age where parents and grandparents can be very embarrassing. No need to worry about the camp burning up in the Waldo fire.  It's located right in the middle of the Hayman burn area, a fire that o...