Summer Feelin'

Well, the weather here has finally seemed to settle into temps appropriate for the time year. We've had several days of rain over the past two weeks or so, but that's fine. The crops need it. Lake Sacacawea needs it. I don't think I spelled that right.

Anyway, with the onset of summer in the Dakotas comes the re-emergence of the ND state bird - the mosquito. Fortunately, however, we've armed ourselves this year with a bug zapper. There are few things more gratifying than listening to one of those go to work. We plugged it in for the first time last night, and I can already tell the grid is going to need cleaning soon. But that's okay - as they say in Starship Troopers, "the only good bug is a dead bug."

In other news, we're making a quick trip to the Minneapolis area this week. Why? Well, in a nutshell, the entity formerly known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service, or INS, (now under the Dept of Homeland Security as the Citizenship and Immigration Service, or CIS) seems to have misplaced some of the documentation we sent them to prove that we got married because we wanted to get married, not just to keep Silvia in the country. Well, that is, they claim we never sent them certain items, but we did - a year ago - so we think they probably lost them. Either way, we waited a year, expected to get Silvia's green card, but instead got a stupid letter from them.

It's actually not bad, though, because we're going to be in Minneapolis on our anniversary, instead of in "Why-Not Minot" during an inspection. Sweet!

Finally, I went on a Hash Run two nights ago, with some people I work with. What is a "Hash Run?" Well, it originated in Amsterdam, apparently, so yes, the name does come from what you're thinking of, but as should be obvious, we're not exactly allowed to use hash, so instead we substitute something legal, like beer. So here's how it works: Everyone meets at a location, drinks a beer or two, then two people - known as the hares - start off, marking a trail with flour and chalk. About 5 minutes later, the rest of us - known as the hounds (get it?) - start following the trail left by the hares, in an attempt to catch them before they arrive at the next stop, which is either a bar, or someone's house, or somewhere that we can drink more beer. Then you spend maybe 15-20 mins at that stop, until the hares take off again, marking another trail to another watering hole. We had 3 stops in total, which I'm told is the standard fare for a "hash," then we headed over to one of the people's house and ordered pizza. This was only my first "hash," but from what I hear, the hares are hardly ever caught. But then, that's not really the point of it all, now is it? :)

Anyway, it was alot of fun, if you don't mind doing a little running. I was concerned I'd be the slowest runner there, considering more of the other participants are regular "hashers," but I was actually able to keep up pretty well. Plus, I needed the exercise. And no, my liver didn't hate me the next day, but my quads certainly did. I'm still having trouble squatting down to pick up the toys Livy throws on the floor.