South Dakota-Monday

We went to the Fair. It was awesome.

There were rides, animals, games and just tons of things to do and see: sheep shearing, animal petting, prize animal lookin', people watchin'. Emily, Allie and I got there early in the afternoon, before the crowd gathered. It looked like pretty normal people for the most part. At least before dusk fell. This was the winning Sheep Buster (sheep busting is like a junior rodeo, basically kids riding on sheep until they fall off). The picture on the left is Ben on "Fluffy" who won with a score of 78. This little guy knew he was a star. As soon as we was off that sheep, he had his fingers thrust up in the air walking around letting everyone know that he was number one!We got to watch one of my personal favorites, pig racing. I'm

sure a lot of people would decry this sport as being inhumane but the pigs sure look like they're having fun.

First, there was a practice run so we could see the pigs strut their stuff. Everyone in the crowd got a ticket and then could put one half of it into the bucket whose color corresponded with that of the pig we though might win. Then the pigs were off again. The pig in the black jersey was always put in backwards. At the end, the pigs get a little treat and the barker pulled a ticket from the bucket and the matching half got some little trinket or prize.

The pig wrestling (or "wraissling" as I tried to make everyone say but using it as much as possible) was the event we had come for. There were four teams (two mens, two womens) and everyone was dressed up in theme costumes. Just before the announcer explained the rules, the pigs were covered in baking oil.

The object of the game was to get the 100-150 lb. pig into the bucket. All four team members must have a hand on the pig as it goes in. They can't grab the tail or the ears of the pig, it's a 10 second penalty. The pig must go in feet first, an upside-down pig was an automatic disqualification. There is a maximum of 1:20 seconds to get the pig out of the tub and put it back in the pig pen. The teams must start in four corners of the arena and have at least one hand on the rail. It was hilarious, loud and just down-right fun. I had tried to talk Emily, Allie and Allie's cousin into making up a team but they were adamant about not going in. The winning times were:

Minute Man Archery club 14.21

Children's Miracle Network 50.81

Cedar Canyon Bible Camp 1:17.06

Children's Miracle Network 1:17.22

We then rode the swing ride and after hanging out at the German polka tent for awhile, we went back to Allie’s cousins house and fell promptly asleep

My work is rarely dull

Think about things one might do in a bathroom. Then ponder which of those things one should never, never do in a urinal. Well, we had a little gift that one of our researchers found. Actually, two little gifts, one for each of our public floors.
People, if you're going to do things like this, make sure that there are no cameras in the building. Seriously.

September books

24. Slower month. Better "quality" of book though. If you consider romance novels to be "lesser." Which I don't. They're usually just shorter. And less densely packed. And more enjoyable.

Antiques Roadshow

In July, Emily and I went to the Antiques Roadshow in Billings. It was pretty awesome. We got to the building, gave them our tickets and got in the first line. It moved pretty fast and we were in line for about an hour-hour and a half. It was really fun to see all of the random stuff that people had brought in. We were allowed to take two items each. I took the statue my uncle had given me and a violin Carrie had gotten from her grandmother. Emily brought a mortar and pestle that belonged to a work friend and a calendar that Christie had found in the wall of her apartment when she was remodeling.
Once you get into the area where they do all the pricing, you can't have a phone or camera so I don't have any pics but the people standing in line were enough. I would definitely recommend that anyone going to get tickets go as early as possible since those people got in and got out... fast. We got in around 11 and didn't get done until 3. Yes, some of that was dawdling but no more than a half hour or so. After you get to the main area, you get two tickets, one for each of your items. Mine were Metalwork & Sculpture and Musical Instruments. Emily got Folk Art and something else we determined was more or less Miscellaneous. It was the longest line, by far.
We started with my little statue. The guy was very, very apologetic while telling me that my troubadour is only worth what people are willing to pay for it. I wasn't expecting much so I wasn't very crushed. The guy seemed a little taken aback that I wasn't more crushed. Um, okay.
Our next stop was the Folk Art. Oh yeah baby, we got the married twin (Okay, I know that's really bad not to know his name, but I don't watch enough to actually know names). This woman with a totally sycophantic gleam in her eye tried to cut in front of us but was rebuffed 'cause she didn't have an item. The mortar and pestle ended up being the highest item of our day. The guy and the other woman at the table were pretty impressed. I'm still convinced we might have been on TV if Emily had lied and said it was her great-grandmother's. Oh well.
The next stop was musical instruments. The first table where we didn't get to walk right up. The guy there got excited when he saw the case. It's a fancy, shmancy thing but the violin... turned out not to be what he had expected. He said that it was "only" worth something like $250-300. I say, meh, for a $10 garage-sale buy, that's pretty awesome.
The last stop was Collectibles-or-whatever-that-section-was-called. There were a lot of people in line. We ended up waiting for over and hour. The guy that looked at Christie's calendar was actually very intrigued. It ended up that similar lithographs were selling for about $50-88. This was an unusual litho because the calendar, all twelve tear-off months were still there.
We got to do the thing at the end where you talk to folks but didn't make it on TV. Well, not on purpose. If you see a green skirt covering a wide butt and a white shirt with criss-cross in the back, that's me.

Episode 1 -- April 11 at 7pm
Episode 2 -- April 18 at 7pm
Episode 3 -- April 25 at 7pm

Guatemala-Saturday

Saturday we headed out of Gualan. We bussed past Guatemala City on the way to visit a clinic on Lake Amatitlan. The clinic itself was very nice, but it was in an unsafe place, at least, that's what they told us. The neighborhood was built up around the railroad tracks . Apparently, the local government had an agreement with whatever railway company it is up in Canada that the railway would own all of their own property as well as 100 feet on either side of the tracks for 30 years (I think they were in year 20 or 25). The railway hasn't been kept up so people have built up what would have been called "shanty towns" in the 30s. It was incredibly heartbreaking to see such poverty. It's one of those things that I know exists, but I'd rather not think abuot it. And here we were, confronted with it. One of the families we met had a little boy named Isaiah and he was more or less shunned because he had a cleft palate. Along with polydatyly (extra fingers and toes), cleft palates are the biggest genetic problem that occurs in Guatemala. We asked the doctor from the clinic if he knew about the program that was going on in Zapata. He had no clue but, luckily, one of our ladies had a brochure. Less than a week after we left, Isaiah had surgery. It's frustrating to know that there are so many relief missions occuring in Guatemala (probably all over the world) that could do so much more good if they knew what the other mission groups were doing. If we hadn't just happened to visit both places, this poor kid might not even have survived.

Finally, it was time to go back and hang out at the hotel where Jane and I were going to sleep. For about two hours, the group just hung out and recounted the details of our trip to each other. It was so much fun and all too soon, we had to say goodbye.

It was an awesome trip. If I can swing the time and money, this is definitely something I'd like to try again.

On Sunday, Jane and I flew back to Tampa. I got to stay with Grandma Byrnes at her super fancy apartment and even got a glimpse of the Yankees player (whose name I will never remember) who was staying down there for spring training.

I went out with Susan and Kaylyn for the latter's birthday party and felt just ancient since all of their friends were in their early- to mid-twenties. It's only 5 years but I just felt out of sync. Anyway, got to sleep in an absolutely lovely bed and finally, after another 7 hours of uneventful travel, made it back to Bozeman.

Hanging at Lake

Drove down to Lake Hotel last night. Yes, I ventured into the park. Carrie and her dad were down fishing so I met them for dinner. Well, I saw her car on the side of the road and veered over. When I asked how the fish were running, she replied nicely enough but when I said, "and your dog is just sacked out" she kind of got a little weirded out. With the water running and not being able to see me clearly, she had no idea that the person talking to her actually knew her.

We had a lovely and delicious dinner at the hotel and I stuck around to hang out in the lobby. It was like a scene out of "Dirty Dancing." Piano player entertaining the mostly over 60 audience all seated in wicker chairs in the sunroom. This Labor Day weekend is really the last hurrah before most of the families have to get back so the kids can go to school. There are still a lot of retirees and Elderhostel tours but the summer season is really winding down. Thank you Baby Jesus.

Book update

June: 34
July: 28
August: 18 (but I don't have anything until the 6th... must have missed a few. But I was pretty busy that week. Who knows?)