OMG!! Two posts in ONE DAY!!!

One of my most recent adventures...Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Ruidoso, and Alamogordo with Mom. Enjoy the slideshow! :)



Double clicking the slideshow will make it bigger, and allow you to see the captions and the pictures at the same time. It's a LOT less annoying that way.

Reasons I Love Living in the Country, #307: It's FULL of Surprises

You may think it's just another ordinary day - stirring of wind moving the windmill, a little dog going for a walk, a bale resting in a field of alfalfa.



Then you realize the bale shouldn't be there. It should be up here...

Ooops. :)

(By the way, we are totally into freedom of speech here at One Day Closer, so despite hubby's dictatorial opposition to the posting of these photos, here they are.)

Getting the heck outta Dodge...

CH-ch-ch-changes... (Any wonder why I can't seem to post??)

So last week I was in seven states, in one form or another, and ended up putting in several hundred miles of windshield time (middle-of-nowhere-Kansas, anyone?). Not my idea of a great week, but very illustrative of how 2009 is shaping up for my department at work. We managed to grow more than 30% in 2008, and we're goal setting for 2009 currently, with plans to repeat and increase that growth this year. While it's exciting to be a part of so much change and growth, my sleep deficit is well into the negative digits. For those of you wondering, it was home (WI), MN, MO, IL, TN, TX, and KS. And the next couple months look like more of the same.

It has been busy at work, but also busy at home. The holidays were a blur - we had seven Christmases in December between B and I's families, and I managed to still fit in a trip to TX. I got my tree up (with the help of darling Bother #1) and lit, but never did manage to get ornaments on. Oh well, there's next year. It was Wii bowling, movies, food, gift grabs, white elephants, toasts, excitement and bondage (family, not the other kind). Hey everybody - let's do it again next year! :)

There have also been a lot of changes happening to the circle of family and friends. Three cousins and two college friends announced babies for 2009, another announced a 2010 marriage, another a cross-country move, and I couldn't be happier for all of them. While changes create apprehension, the also create opportunity.

So here's to 2009 - already the year of changes.

Twerd

I know there are a lot of things I need to post to the blog for all the hardcore "fans" out there, but I need to take a moment and discuss something I'm a hardcore fan of: the TWILIGHT books. For those of you not familiar, they are a series of books by young adult author Stephenie Meyer, and they revolve around the central character, Bella; her boyfriend, Edward; and her best friend, Jacob; and their friends and family. Sounds innoculous enough, right? Except that Bella's human, Edward's a vampire, and Jacob is a werewolf. Makes it all much more interesting! :)

So, pop culture nerd that I am, I had heard a TON about these books on various blogs, media outlets, shows, etc, and I decided I had to check it out. Last week, I started the first book. This week, all four are done. They're that good. And yes, it's official - finishing all the books in less than a week makes me...drum roll, please.... a TWERD (twilight+nerd=twerd).

The first Twilight movie comes out Nov 21 (already have plans to see that), and the first really good trailer came out yesterday. There had been others, but this one really gets your attention! Here's a link to Perez Hilton's TV channel, where you can see the new trailer (it's not even on the official Twilight website yet...!).

ENJOY! And welcome to Twerd-dom!

Lovin' this...and life updates

• For those of you who have been living in a box for the last week, Google unveiled a new browser - called Chrome - to compete with Microsoft's Internet Explorer. I've been running both for the last couple of days, and I am really digging the ability of the Chrome browser to get the job done without some of the aspects of IE that I found annoying or cumbersome.
  

• One of my favorites - individual tab task management. What's that mean? It means that if you are viewing multiple sites, for instance a video in one session, flight reservations in another, an IM conversation in another, etc, and video tab crashes, it doesn't bring down the entire browser and all of your other sites. It just closes the individual tab/session that is experiencing issues. Coolness. Especially since having this happen when you have 10 different things going is a pain!

• The design of Chrome is also really simple - both from a usage standpoint and a esthetic standpoint. Major kudos to Google on that.

Check Google's very good educational/marketing campaign site here.

Other things...

• It's the 22nd birthday of Bother #1 today. Everybody say HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KARL!

• I ran my first 5K race this morning (that's 3.1 miles for those of you who are metric-system deficient). I didn't set any land speed records (average speed was about a 10.5 minute mile), but I finished, and that was a big accomplishment for me, especially considering I've only been running for about two months. I liked it, so I'm going to keep an eye out for other events this fall. New goal - faster!

• Pic is of the mother-in-law, sister-in-law, myself, and family friend after the event. The others walked the distance. I went back and found them after I finished and walked the remainder with them. Does that mean I finished twice?! (LOVE the vintage Chibardun Telephone t-shirt - thanks to my friend Terrel for hooking me up with that!!)
  
• Had a terrible experience on the road in Arkansas this week. No, it doesn't have to do with canoes or banjos!! Very bad food poisoning, actually. And here's what I learned from this experience - don't eat fish at the Ruby Tuesdays in Fayetteville! Other than that it was a good trip. The Tulsa, OK and NW AR area is very pretty - lots of hills and water, like home.

Pictures and vids from last weekend's festivities are coming. Bear with me. :)

It's been a busy summer...

I promise I'll update more a little later, including pics and things, but for now here's the status...

• The rest of the trip to Italy and Austria was AWESOME! I will post some pics (and more SPECTACULAR video clips *wink, wink*)soon. Our time in Salzburg and in Venice was way too short, and left me with a desire to visit again.


• On the return, it was a huge catch-up with work. Add to that time at the cabin on the St. Croix, Little Sister's 18th birthday (YAY, K!), Bother #2's birthday, Cousin Matty's birthday, Dr's appts, dentist appts, farm work (always hay, straw or cows) and everything else, and it made for a busy last couple of months


• Shortly before I left for Europe, Dad was admitted to the hospital with some issues we thought were related to his diabetes. It turned out to be his heart, and he the Monday after I left he had a six-way bypass and valve replacement. It was a little scary, but he's come through like a champ! We've been taking turns running to and from Dr's appts and rehabilitation, getting him here and there.


• B won tickets to the Hayward World Lumberjack Championship in Hayward, WI. Attached are a couple of vids from the pole climbers - one of the craziest things I've ever seen. These poles are 60 and 90 feet tall, and these guys scale and descend these poles in about 12-15 seconds. Absolutely nuts.

Turtle Creek Threshing is coming up this weekend, and I'll have the prep pics and vids from that coming up as well (including the cutting and binding, and the bundle loading). Check back for more! And have a great Labor Day weekend!