Slides come to life..........

Back in the 50-60s my dad had fun taking a lot of pictures with his camera and develop the results in slide form. We kept all of his slides until the camera went bad and of course was very expensive to fix. During that time everyone had switched over to the instant Polaroids or film.

My niece and her husband took on the task of scanning all of our family slides and my brother-in-laws family slides. It is a lot of work! Kris and I had spent a little time doing this but it was taking so long with the equipment we had and basically we got burnt out on it. Anyway all the slides were sent to California just after Christmas and let me tell you sending boxes of slides chuck full of memories out the door onto a truck and hoping nothings happens to them is very scary! Of course they made it there just fine. The great thing now is we have all of them scanned and can go look at them on a private site so we can label them as to who is in the picture and even add other comments as we like. The slides are going to go into archival sheets to keep them from getting any worse and stored in a SAFE place. Lots of memories on the slides but I was a bit to little to remember any of them really and as is the way in most families the first child has a lot more pictures taken of them then the last child does but that is ok I knew they loved me just as much as my big sister.

My dad had quite the eye for composition in some of the pics. He really did a great job setting it up and shooting and after taking two camera classes I can really appreciate the job he did. There was no automatic setting on the camera he had. It was all manual. I like to think he was a natural talent at it as I really do not recall him sitting around reading about shooting the perfect picture but again at that time is his life I was not even thought of or was maybe a VERY little sparkle in his eye. So I leave you with a few pics he took from the past......

Yup, that is me with my grandpa's hat on.

My sister in grandparent's backyard (Obert school in the background)

My dad's parents standing outside on their sidewalk in Obert. That is Hwy 12 you see in the picture. I am pretty sure they never smilled in any picture we have of them!

Snow piled up on Hwy 12 somewhere between Hwy 81 and Obert. We never get snow like this anymore!

Waterfall somewhere in Colorado (I am guessing).

Since dad worked for Gurney's there are a lot of flower pictures. Guess that is where I got that gene!
My grandpa (my dad's dad). Even though the picture is dark it still shows a lot about him. He smoked a pipe, of course that is obvious, but he was a hard working guy that was very caring, and would do anything for his kids and grand kids. He worked for the county driving the maintainer around the Obert county roads (see the old Obert school house in the back ground?). I never saw him get upset, well except when my and my sister would fight, but still he never really raised his voice and I really do not remember him saying a bad word about anyone. He was the only grand parent I knew and he will always hold a special place in my heart!

Thank you Beth and Terry for all the work you did!

Eating, shopping, basketball and more shopping

Lots of stuff going on this past weekend. WOW!

Friday night we hit the Taste of the Big Apple with Kris's sister and mother then on to the airport to wait for her brother-in-law to fly in from DC. His plane was late so spent a little more time there then we thought we were going to but it was all good.

Saturday Kris's family hit the mall for shopping. It was NUTS out there. The funny thing is that the people that live in Sioux Falls avoid the mall on the weekends because of all the out of towners but since we had out of towners in town with us it was the thing to do. A few things were purchased by others but not by me as I was saving my extra cash for the bike swap on Sunday. We hit Puerto Vallarta for and early supper before hitting the Augie vs Northern basketball game. Ok, I am not much for watching sports anymore except for baseball, bike racing and maybe a tad bit of golf..very tad bit..so I was BORED out of my head watching this coupled by sitting behind the students section who were standing the whole time and if we didn't stand we didn't see one end of the court. So to pass the time for me I tweeted on the Blackberry. I am sure I was viewed as anti-social but here is the deal. I was there to see Don Meyer coach and secretly hoped Northern would win...sorry all you Augie people. I have a lot of respect for this coach. Do I know him?..NOPE, but just his whole ordeal he has been through and his fighting spirit earns my respect. Don Meyer has the most wins of NCAA college men's basketball coach ever so it was a privilege to be at a game he was coaching. Here is a coach sitting in his wheelchair on the sidelines in the coaches box, moving ALL the time, coaching, recording, watching the plays, calling the plays and then getting upset about a call that had him standing up in front of his wheelchair with his ast coached hanging on to his belt to keep him from falling. He has such passion for the game even when he is fighting cancer and still recovering from his accident. Look for some great footage of him around March Madness time as ESPN has been following him around a lot filming.

The other fun thing this weekend was Snakebite, a local blogger / biker, had organized a bike swap meet with the proceeds going to F.A.S.T. (Falls Area Single Track). Great turn out! FAB had a booth there and sold some memberships - YEAH! There were some GREAT deals there also. I got a pair of Shimano sandals (SPD) for Kris for $20! They were brand new but maybe the model was a few years old but still...they retail around $80! TWD (Two Wheeler Dealer) sold a LOT of shoes! Of course some of the Lane Hogs came up from Vermillion / Wakonda so we had to meet at Monk's to make sure the beer was still good there and of course it was. We had Biking Brady, Ride Vermillion, Cycling Cathy with husband Charlie, Me, Kris and then a couple of friends Dawn and Christi came later. Lots of fun and laughter was had and plans are that some of us might do the St Patty's day ride in Yankton put on by the Missouri River Cycling group in Yankton, March 14th. Should be FUN.

Lots to do this week work wise, bike club newsletter and then our second camera class on Thursday night.

Congrats to Levi and team Astana for their win at the Tour of California this past weekend. Also way to go Lance for placing 7th! Amazing 7 TDF wins and second race back after 3 years and places 7th!

Peloton is not a type of dinosaur

As I was tweeting on twitter about the Tour of California yesterday afternoon a fellow twitterite asked me a very interesting question. My tweet was "The peloton is coming fast". Ok, so, many of us know in the bike racing world what the peloton is but this person asked if it was a dinosaur and if it was that I should RUN! So, at first I chuckled, pretty good, in fact. I then picked myself up off the floor from my rolling around in a laughing coma. You know the type of laughter I am talking about. The type that you are laughing so hard no noise comes out, but then I jumped to my feet, as only I could do, I dusted myself off and thought I need to be a good bike liaison to others that may not know the lingo. I decided to educate the individual. I told them what the peloton is and then I got thinking about it more and more. It sure does sound like it could be a dinosaur. I found myself wondering what kind of dinosaur the peloton would be. Is it a T-Rex sort of thing with it's short arms and powerful jaws devouring the competition? or a Pterodactyl type creature swooping up the competition? What do you think?

Weekend recap........

Great weekend even though it seems I am at a loss of sleep.

We hit Pierre Friday night and of course as usual there was desert waiting for us. Saturday we mushed about before we went to View 34 for supper. My cousin owns this place and if you are ever in Pierre make sure to stop in and have a meal. It is on the order of Foley's or Minerva's here in Sioux Falls. Very good food!...AND WINE!

Sunday we went to early church, back to their place then I took off with camera in hand to snaps some pics at the capitol.

There are a LOT of geese that hang around the little lake by the capitol so had to snap a few of the flying creatures then drove around bit to the railroad bridge that goes over the Missouri River and snapped a few there also.

The whole drive home Kris was "woman-ing" the crackberry giving me Tour of California updates. That made the 3 hour trip go fast. Glad that Astana is looking strong. Fun to see someone go out in a break and win but bummed some the guys I want to win lost some ground.

FAB, View 34 and other stuff...........

Had FAB meeting last night. Keep watching the website for new and exciting things happening!

Not much else going on except a few darn Lane Hogs (you know who you are!) got me to start up on Facebook. This thing is WILD and a HUGE time suck much more so than Twitter....I think...... but, it is still fun to hook up with friends that have the same interests! I even got Kris to sign up or did I sign her up...haha...well she will have fun with it also once she learns a bit more.

Busy rest of the week here at work then a camera class Thursday night at Harold's which should be fun. Then off to Pierre for the weekend. We are going to hit my cousin's new eating place, View 34. They opened around the holidays. Should be a fun time and can't wait to eat there. I have heard the food is great!

My USA Cycling officials shirts and windbreaker will be delivered to me tomorrow. It was a good time to buy the clothes since some were half price but limited sizes and the limited sizes were my size! I have been slowly picking up things we are to have so have a good part of all the office type stuff picked up and purchased the whistle yesterday at a local sporting goods shop. The Fox 40 with rubber tip. Note to self, don't blow it in the truck when your windows are closed. I have yet to figure out the stopwatch purchase yet. Still a bit more educating myself on this before I buy. We are to have one good quality stopwatch ($50-75 price range) and at least one back up that can be of lesser value. Oh, yes and I have to buy turkey bags yet. They are used on rainy days and will cover your clipboard allowing your hand inside to write on the clipboard and still protected the pages from the elements.

Sad news to report. Pastor Jacob Knutson, the pastor at Vangen when we first join the church in Mission Hill, passed away Monday. He had cancer and died in his sleep. Another one I were the yellow Livestrong band for! He was a gentle soul and loved having fun with all the Luther-Leaguers at our many events. He was also a sounding voice in our adult choir. Pastor Jake was so good to our family when my father died. He and his wife drove to Sioux Falls and stayed with us in the waiting room and drove home in the wee hours in the morning just to be there if we needed them and we sure did. Rest in peace Pastor Jake, now you are well!

Well, that is about it for now. Have a great rest of the week and weekend everyone!

We passed!

It is official, we passed! A few FAB members, Cassie, the kErnEl, Dr Dope, Hooterville Mayor, me, Dustin from Central Plains Cycling, one guy from the Sioux City bike club and I think four from the Spirit Lake area all took the USA Cycling Officials clinic and test from our regional USA Cycling guy with all the knowledge Larry Martin. It was a few hours of info, a skills component and then the open book test. Let's just say the test, about 1 1/2-2 hours, is not easy even though it was open book. There is a lot to learn that is for sure! Now it is finding some races to go watch and tag along with some experienced offices to get my feet wet so to speak. Sounds like a few of us might travel to a race in Sioux City March 22 to check it all out! Should be fun!

Commuting this time of year?

Hope you are sitting down when you are reading this. This is day TWO of commuting to work this week. YUP, I know there are a lot of you out there that commute when there is snow, rain, ice and whatever and HATS OFF TO YOU but I am a fare weather rider so this is pretty good for me plus this is quite a few months earlier commuting for me than last year. I started keeping track in June last year. Not sure with rain and ice possible next week how long this will last but it is a start. The first day my hands got cold and of course the ride home I was overdressed. This morning was perfect clothes wise but roads were a bit more frosty. I learned right away a to be a bit more aggressive on "owning" your lane when there is ice approaching. I didn't fall but was very cautious. Looking forward to the ride home even though it is mainly uphill...UGH!


Taking supper over to our shut in friend tonight. Well she isn't really a shut in but she has been at home sick with bad sinus stuff for a week and a half. With one trip to Urgent Care , two trips to the doctor and a CAT scan in a week and a half I think she is doing better. We thought comfort food would be in order and nothing says comfort food more than a good old Lutheran hot dish! Kris has the day off so she is making Stella's hot dish...not sure what is all in it but hamburger, veggies, cream of something soups and chips on top...MMMM!


Tomorrow a few of us have our USA Cycling class to become cycling officials. The class goes from 9-3:30 and then an open book test at the end. HOPE I PASS! Kind of nervous about it as I really do not know the ins and outs of the legal stuff for racing but I guess I will have to learn. Why am I doing this? I love the dynamics of bike racing and our FAB club is trying to grow in all aspects of the cycling community and with having USAC Officials in our area we will be able to hold official time trials and crits locally. ITS ALL A GOOD THING.

We have a trip to DC coming up and decided that with the new camera we needed to learn a bit more about it so we are taking an SLR class next Thursday night. Should be fun. Lots to learn on this camera. We also have our hotel secured for our trip..WOW it is expensive out there. What is odd is that since it is a business city the hotel rooms are cheaper on Friday and Saturday nights but when it comes to Sunday-Thursday LOOK OUT! I think we are paying $169 / night for two nights...YUP THIS IS THE CHEAP NIGHTS! and then it jumps to $269 / night for our three other nights and this is a convention rate! YIKES! It is more expensive than staying at a moderate hotel at Disney and that would include our park tickets! It will be fun. Now we have to decide what we are going to take in the short few days we are there. Oh, yes and locking in our airfare. Lots to do yet I guess.

Well, I hope everyone has been out enjoying the wonderful weather the last couple days in our area. Cool down the weekend and then rain / ice /snow stuff next week so be careful out there kids!

Have a great weekend!

TV training....

Lets see what has been happening in my life.....hmmm....well, not much really.

We hopped on the trainers last night and watched TV. We decided to ride at a comfy pace and then at commercials we would turn it up a bit and then once the commercials were over we would go back to normal pace. Pretty funny. We ended up cussing out the commericals! We always try to make it fun when we ride those darn things. It was an ok workout to start back up with. I did find that my ankle was not happy with me. It is one I have broken, once, and sprained many times at least 8 times. Anyway I had my biking shoes on. I do not have clip-in pedals on my Cannondale road bike, maybe that is the problem? Anyway it was getting kind of painful toward the end of the ride. I have had the shoes for two years and decided last night I might need to get some new in soles for them as they looked depressed a bit. Oh ya, I am extremely flat footed also so need something with a bit of an arch. The funny thing is I don't remember this being a problem last year at all. Maybe the ankle just needs to get back into cycling form also.....damn appendages anyway!

In other noise a few FAB members hope to have one of these bad boys (see below) by late Saturday afternoon! Keep your fingers crossed for me that I pass the test!

Lots happen with FAB this year so join and become part of the movement to make cycling better in Sioux Falls! If you don't live in Sioux Falls then join your local bike club and make your community a better biking community!

Recharging, good food and crazy people!

We recharged a bit in Yankton this past weekend. Pretty laid back, enjoyed the weather, good food and beverages.

Saturday we drove out to the lake to see bald eagles, we saw one, we did also see two deer and also crazy people ice fishing with cars parked on the ice. It was 55 degrees out and stuff was melting like crazy. I really don't get the ice fishing thing anyway, don't get me wrong I like to fish but only when it is NICE out! Anyway we hit the bike trail along Lewis and Clark lake and decided that it was going to be to sloppy for the bikes so we walked it with Abe in tow. He was a MESS by the time we were done but he sure had a LOT of fun. We took the new cameras along and of course had fun with them. The ice on the lake was making all sorts of noises! Let me just say it was strange walking in sand on the beach with BIG chunks of ice on one side and some snow on the other side of me. What a great day it was to be outside and enjoy mother natures teasing of the spring to come...in a few months that is!

Stopped in to see Ben at Ben's Brewing Company. He was all fired up about the game on Sunday and I am sure he is happy with the out come! We tried out his new honey ale. It is good. Really light and a very drinkable beer. I have to say I kind of like 3rd street ale better. Ben is brewing good beer so stop in and see him! So, you say, you don't like beer and like mixed drinks instead? Well, he has that now also, starting today!

Yankton has a new Italian restaurant called River Rose Bistro. We went there Saturday night. VERY VERY GOOD FOOD! Take a peek at their menu here. It is not run by the same people that had the River Rose. They are still new so we didn't get our salad and bread but as it turned out that was just fine as it is a LOT of food. We ordered the cheese board for two. VERY good. I had never had hot grapes before. They actually put grapes in the oven and bake them a bit. It really makes them more sweet and VERY good. The cheese and meat were also very good. The next course would have been the salad which we were not served but the looked HUGE! For the main course I ordered the linguine with clams in a white wine sauce and Kris had the risotto with pecan encrusted chicken breast. Very good also. We both ate have and are having the other half for supper tonight! We had decided we would have desert. Kris opted for the bread pudding with a raspberry sauce and I had tiramisu (sp?). It had more of a caramel taste to it then the normal espresso but was still good. They made the gaff with the salad right by taking $4 off for the salads and bought our deserts. Oh, ya, the wine was great also!

We got home mid afternoon Sunday. Abe totally CRASHED. He was so funny lying on the floor, then the couch, snoring away. Poor guy, he was still trying to recoup from his walk, I think! We chilled and watched the game at home. Great game to watch if your team was not in it. The commercials this year were not all that great.

One thing that is scary. Kris bought stuff to learn how to knit! OMG, will that happen when I turn 50?