Foxes - Round 3!

Well, they're back! I don't know what it is about my house/property. Last week on Sunday morning I saw 3 foxes playing in the cul-de-sac. I'd just mowed the day before and didn't see anyplace around the house that they could have settled in. Well, this morning I went to breakfast with friends. We'd come back to my house and Christa looks out on the deck and said there was a fox there! Sure enough! I grabbed my camera and shot off some quick pictures. It spooked after a few minutes. But later, after Christa and Warren left the fox returned and lay in the sun for a few hours.

I went out later to mow and saw their new home. In the back yard in the area where Dad and Mom had planted roses. There's an aspen tree and they dug a den there!

I'm off to China tomorrow. I got my little Asus netbook . . . it's going with me and I hope to be able to post some pictures. The hotels we're staying at all have internet. The shipwhen we cruise the Yangtze does, but there's a charge so I probably won't post then.

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th!!

Random Stuff

(I know it's not Christmas, but I wanted to post a picture of the "kids" with Yogi in it and this is the only one I have that I can find!)

It's been a busy past few weeks, but keeping busy is good! Was in MO this week, hot and humid. Last week in SD/MN, cool, cool, cool. The week before in TX. I leave on Monday for MS where it's supposed to be in the upper 90's. The good part of all this is that the weather here has been beautiful! Cool and lots of rain! Nights are in the mid-50's still, and we've only had a couple of days in the upper 70's to very low 80's.

The bad part is that I'm not getting used to the hot, humid weather I'll probably find in China!

I ordered a new MacBook Pro this afternoon. This one is going to Guna. I've been wanting to upgrade for awhile now, and with Guna's move thought it would be a good time. She has an old Mac Book from her GI teaching job. With her move, she has to give that up.

The new one will have a 500 gb hard drive, up from the 120 I have on this one. That'll be great! Plus it has an SD slot and 4gb memory. I'm hoping I get it by Friday.

So, Guna has a new job and a new house! In this economy, this environment, it's amazing! She decides in mid-April to make a move and here we are, a mere 2 months later and she has everything in place. She'll be teaching in the local school district, 5th grade math/science. Put an offer on a new house that sounds beautiful. I'm excited to see it.

So, I'll be heading to GI next Sunday. I have a presentation in Kearney on the evening of the 29th, then we'll head for TN the next morning. I'll be home on the 3rd with enough time to get myself packed and then will head to China on the 6th!

I got myself another toy to take along, a Netbook. I ordered (used points from one of my credit cards) and hope I get it within a week. It's an Asus Eee 1008HA and weighs just 2.5 lbs. I'm planning on taking it with me to China so I can download pictures and hopefully do a bit of blogging.

Pictures of little Joey and Anna on Krissy's blog are priceless! Little Joey certainly has his big sisters chubby cheeks. I hope we can stop in and see him next week!

Jake stopped in to see Grandma a few weeks ago when he was in GI on business. He was only there for 30 mins. or so, but sounds like they had a good visit!

Hope you're all having a good summer!

If it's summer I must be traveling!

Well, my summer travel starts up this week with lots of work and lots of presentations.  I'll be in TX this week, then off to SD/MN for a very long week, then MO and finally MS the last week of the month.  Then, depending on schedules will be helping Guna move/drive from Grand Island to TN.  The house is sold, and she's in TN now working on "Life .  . . next phase!!".

Then, come July 6th - 20th, I'm off on a trip I've wanted to do for years . . . .  Take a guess, the first one doesn't count!!

Another Mom update. . .

I left Grand Island Saturday early afternoon.  Jenny/Dan and the girls decided to come to GI and see Grandma.  We got to her room around 10:30 or so.  Mom was relatively OK, she didn't say much of anything to either of us, and we probably weren't in her room for more than 5 minutes.  She indicated that she didn't want Dan or the girls to come in and see her.  When we left Mom was sitting in front of the window, just sort of "being".  So, the 5 of us went up to the window and waved to her.  She did wave back, which surprised me.

All in all, much the same.  

Way to Go Bethany!!

So Bethany ran the San Diego Marathon today, her first! 

She's done some half marathons and the like, but this was the biggie.  She did great with a time of 4:27!!!

I followed on-line which was pretty cool!  

So, what's next on tap??  Well, Mikael did say at Christmas that after Bethany ran her marathon it was time to start thinking about having  little ones!!

No TV and it's the Nuggets!

So I'm at Guna's, she's off to TN.  Now that she's sold her house, she's out there seeing all the Stewies and planning her next move.

I'm out to see Mom.  

The who would have thought it Denver Nuggets are playing the Lakers really hard.  It's pretty amazing actually.  So tonight is game 5 and Guna doesn't have TV!!!!!!!  WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!  Her dish quit working after she had some work done on the roof.  She called and they gave her some bs about needing a new dish.  She told 'em to forget it since she's moving.  As a result, no TV!!!  The Nuggets are pulling a miracle.  I've really enjoyed watching them and I'm stuck with not being able to see 'em.  I had 'em on the radio, and suddenly her reception went to hell.  So, I spent a good 15 mins seeing if I could find a place to stream 'em.  No such luck, unless I wanted to pay.  So, I started looking for Denver or LA radio stations.  They were all blocked from playing it on-line.  Finally I thought of iTunes, and low and behold . . . I got the game on ESPN Radio.  So, I'll be able to enjoy the 2nd half and Friday's game!!!

On to Mom. . . I got here around 6:30.  Stopped at Guna's to drop my stuff and headed out to see Mom.  It was just after 7, and she wasn't in her room.  I went to the dining room, and there she was.  Everyone gone and they were cleaning up.  Mom was sitting there by herself, sort of eating.  They'd moved her to a table where she gets help from the staff.  They'd had tomato soup and a good bit of it was on her 'bib', mouth and fingers.  I cleaned her up a bit and took her back to her room, after stopping off to see the birds!

I almost started to cry.  As she physically declines this gets harder and harder for me to watch.  I gave her some M&Ms and she had a very difficult time with her dexterity and trying to get them to her mouth.

She seemed a bit better than when I was here earlier in the month.  She talked a bit more, but still has trouble following any discussion of 'substance'.  I sat and chatted with her for about 45 mins. and she kept telling me to 'go home'.  So I finally left just before 8.  I'll be here thru Saturday morning.

She had some really bad bruising on her hands.  It's something she's had on and off for many, many years.  Her mouth wasn't drooping like it was last time.  However, they've put a big cushion on the right side of her wheelchair.  That's the side that her whole body was leaning in to last I was here.  She wasn't doing that tonight, so I'll see if she has any trouble the next few days.

Her fingers/hands are really on the cool side.  She's getting her nails done and has polish so I can't tell if there is a bluish tinge to her nails or not.  Still the swelling on her ankles and fingers though.

So, I'll post again in the next couple of days.

On a side note. . . I decided to see if I could make it here on  one tank of gas.  I didn't decide to try it until I was past North Platte.  Up to that point I'd been averaging 75-80.  After my Starbucks stop I decided to slow down a bit and see what sort of mileage I could get.  Well, I managed to get 420 miles on the tank of  gas, averaging 30 mpg.  The gas light came on just as a exited I-80 onto Locust!  So, I made it.  The bad part is that by slowing down to improve my mileage it took me close to 7 hours to get here versus just under 6 hours.  Don't know that I'll do that again, unless gets back to the $4 range!!

TN Boys - Mother's Day 2008