What did you do this weekend?

We went back to 1953 and took these pictures.

(I cannot guarantee this will be the last retrocamera post)

This is Cooler Than Me

This is the results of an app called RetroCamera - completely free. Our boots have never looked....artsier.

And here's our artsy cat:

Stress

My mom informed me about a stress level scale for life. Certain life events have a percentage or rating of how stressful they are. Death of a spouse is 100% stressful (Bryan is fine); moving and losing your job are both in the 80-90% range (these apply). So armed with that tidbit I went to google: How stressful is my life? I asked google. (Which reminded me of the time I googled "Where is my mommy?" when I couldn't find her in the house. When my mom later googled something that started with "where is..." and that popped up as a suggested question, I was found out.) I couldn't find the scale of stress my mom referenced. But I did gain some perspective. Among the results was information about how stressful going to jail is, and about how stressful a condition known as gastroparesis is. As proof of the latter: "I cannot describe how stressful my life was during these years. Every time I burped, I would feel anxious. Was 'it' starting again?" I'm not incarcerated and can burp without a problem. I must be fine.

Happy New Year

Happy 2011! It's strange to write that here when I'm pretty sure that I've told the few people who DO read this "Happy New Year" to their face. Forgive my being redundant.

2011 will be an interesting one as it begins the countdown to the end of this here blog. Bryan and I are moving, and alas, the clever moniker "Condo in Cando" will not be relevant. I've thought about all the different "home names" (tudor, cottage, ranch, trailer...which I'm pretty sure I know because of playing the game Life) and I can't think of another combination of town+house that would equal anything better than "Condo in Cando."

I told my sister we were moving and she (facetiously) pointed out that my biggest worry was probably what to name the blog. Granted, I'm not losing sleep over the name, but I did try to do a little blog research to see what other creative names are out there. What I found were a LOT of blogs written by people from the perspective of their pets. I thought, "This is like time-wasting squared; first the intitial time wasted writing the blog multiplied by my time wasted looking at them."

And because that last sentence really made me self conscious about blogging (that's probably what people have thought reading my blog!) I'll stop so as to avoid multiplying YOUR time wasted.

July to the Present

Here are some quick updates that span July to October:

For our anniversary, we went to "Guys and Dolls" at an historical fort. We had a little time to kill beforehand, so we toured.

Luke and I ran a 5K.

Our cat still thinks she's a kangaroo.

We went to Rapid City over Labor Day for my brother's birthday. We went to Boot Hill cemetary in Deadwood and hiked nearly straight up to get to Seth Bullock's grave.

I painted the rest of the kitchen/entryway green.

Bryan's making beef stew today!

And lastly, the volleyball team is 14-4 (exciting!) and the main reason why I haven't been blogging!

Just Like a Movie II

I got to fly with my Dad today! The title is in reference to my previous post about my Dad's airplane: http://condoincando.blogspot.com/2009/08/just-like-movie.html

After assessing the wind situation, Dad deemed it safe to fly and off we went.



Before: on the ground looking out the little porthole. This supplied the AC during the flight.



After: 85 mph and 400 feet in the air.



I got brave and put my finger OUTSIDE the airplane.



Langford

Home

Dad's called flying his personal IMAX.

Checking cows

Lauren: Dad, you know what I call this one?
Dad: Hm?
Lauren: "The Prairie is No Place for a Woman."
Dad: Hm. I call it "Comforting."

Pierpont

Signs

Back down the runway

Butterhorns

The storybook quest (see below) to find more baked goods on which to place jam continues.

Great Grandma Tastad's butterhorns!



In making these, I learned:
1. How to scald milk
2. What "proofing" means
3. How to proof in the oven

Much like blanching rhubarb, I think that both 1 & 3 are not necessary and I'm waiting for my Mom to inform me of this. Regardless, I felt like a pioneer woman when I did both.