Country Girls Part I

I have never ever been ashamed of being a country girl. This weekend my roots began to show. My friend A had a baby about a month ago. She decided to give the baby up for adoption. She decided to go with a non-traditional adpotion and had an open adoption. For those of you who are undure of what that is it is when the birth mother is able to know the family and be a part of the baby's life. The involvement is up to the adoptive parents and the birth mother. So being the good friends that we are my friend T and I adventured to the big cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. So I thought that I would share the follies of the weekend with you.

Friday night I drove to T's house which is an hour and a half away. We decided to leave on Saturday morning for the cities. She lives by LaCrosse we would be a little closer and I wouldn't have to be stuck in the car for 6 hours on friday night. I arrived at her house at about 8:30-9:00 pm after a hellish drive home and a packing frenzy. I do usually pack the night before but I was so tired. We decided to go out to a "hick bar" in town. Note: That is the only type of bar in her town. Most of the people in the bar didn't know about the advances in dentistry. They were missing teeth and proud. We were only going to stay out for a drink or two. But, the bartender started giving us shots. First we were too quiet and needed to liven up. The second shot was given for the same reason. The third shot was because her feet hurt and we weren't quite rowdy enough yet. The forth and final shot was just for the hell of it. We had all of those on top of the 5ish drinks we had. Needless to say cookies were tossed from both parties that night.

Saturday was an adventure of a lifetime. First of all we were as hung over as hell and didn't crawl out of bed until 9am. We had 2 sets of directions, 2 maps and two heads to figure it all out. We started going out of town the wrong way first of all. The signage for the turn onto the interstate was awful we had to turn around. The construction in Rochester, Mn was awful. I swear they were working on that back in 2001 when we went through for spring break. Did you know in Mn they have stoplights in a 55 mph zone and you are actually expected to stop. Crazy mud ducks. Then where our highway we needed to take split there wasn't correct signage due to a construction zone, so we made our way across the city by map. We got to our friend's house and went to eat at McDonald's . She then took us across town to a hotel. I swear we drove for 20 minutes. She said that she would get one near her house. Not even close. The hotel was so sketchy I am not going to even tell you the hotel chain.

After checking in we drove out to the adoptive family's home to meet the baby. A VERY cute baby. He was so good while we were there. He did nothing but sleep. T and I figured that we would only be out there 1.5 hours or so. But we were there for 4 count them 1, 2, 3, 4 hours. It got the point with the "oh we need to eat hint" which A didn't pick up on she just invited us for supper. T and I said that we had other plans of taking A out for supper. Luckily there was a Red Lobster near our hotel. I LOVE Red Lobster. We ate a wonderful dinner and I had 2 Lobsterita's...mmmm lobsteritas......mmmmm.

We went back to the hotel and got ready to go out. We were trying to find a place to go out near to the hotel so that we didn't have to worry about driving. Well we had trouble finding a bar. I went to the front desk to return the iron I had borrowed and found that they had a phone book just for the Roseville area. I found a bar in there on my way back up to the room that was on the same street as our hotel. Granted it was a sports bar but we could still go and get a drink. By the time I got back up to the room A had found a bar she knew where it was and was about 20 minutes away. She completely IGNORED my suggestion that was close to our hotel......

So we pile into her car to drive to this bar. I sit in front along the way. I find out that A has a stop sign stopping deficiency. She does not stop at the stop line or the stop sign. She stop HAF WAY INTO THE INTERSECTION!!!!! I feared for my life the WHOLE way there. We get to where the bar is "supposed to be" but she cannot find the street. I am thinking "oh great we are lost." We passed a bar I along the way. By which we almost hit a passle of people who were drunkenly walking home from the bar where we were probably supposed to be. The people were in the cross walk but imagine walking home and you see a car screeching to a halt right at your feet would you pee your pants? I would. So we can't find the bar, So I suggested why don't we go to the bar we passed on the way. So we turn around and head to the bar. Know you think we would have realized the establishment we were about to go in when there is a sign about the city ordinance banning firearms in the bar. But we went in anyway.

It was like being in a hick biker bar in Arena for crying out loud. You either had to be a drunk or a mental patient to frequent this bar. There was one lady talking to herself the whole time. There was a guy with the balding mullet going on. You know the ones who have gone bald on top and have the long hair in the back. The people were sketchy as hell. Here we were 3 young girls all gussied up they must have thought that we were nutty.

Stay tuned for a future up date. The amount of things that I have to write about this weekend could take a week to write.

Web Dorks Unite!

Ok I am officially a web dork. I don't like the phrase computer geek because I am a science geek and I can't be two forms of geek. Earlier this week one of my favorite bloggers wrote a post entitled Crossing the line about posting a comment on dooce.com. Which if you have never read dooce you should. It is an excellent, excellent site!!! I highly recommend it I check her site at least three times a day looking for a new post.

SO, I have been reading a site called PlanetGordon.com for two months or so now. I have gone back and read his archives to catch up on all the history. I really relate to this site because it is a blog that a groom is writing about the wedding. He reminds me of our friend Prock. The happy couple lives in New York city. He is a writer for a news broadcast out there and she is a Jewish clergy member(I am not too sure about her title for sure). It is nice to read what they are going through just to know you aren't alone. Also, helps in knowing what other people are doing. He is getting married a week from sunday in Oconomowoc at a summer camp. He is leaving today I believe to come to Wisconsin to get all ready for the wedding.

Today he posted about the weather forcast here in Wisconsin called And Now The Weather.... The forcast for Oconomowoc says that it is supposed to thunderstorm next Sunday. So I wrote a post telling him that that weather forcast will change and you can't even count on the weather forcast the morning of for the afternoon. You know Wisconsin the weather is so unpredictable. The only difference with my post this time than other times that I have posted on sites in the past is that I thought to myself. "I should put my URL in the comment box, maybe I would get a reader or two out of it." Well this afternoon I looked at my referral URLs on bravenet.com to see where my latest hits had come from. There it was right there I had a link from my post. So I resolved the IP address to the web host's name and sure enough it said the site was hit from a web carrier in New York City. It was The Groom. The Groom visited my site....He read about my olympic favorite moments, my he-she dog and my lunch envy. He knows about my car saga. He actually was here!!!!! I cannot believe it. This guy is a famous blogger, he has been written about on multiple occasions in national articles and he read my little old site...... I am officially a web dork and I am proud of that!!!!!!

Olympic Obsession

That's it I have become an obsessed Olympics fan. I am constantly checking to see who has won what medals. Then I watch it at night that day's happenings on NBC. Here is a list of my favorite happenings so far. In no particular order:

1. Watching "The Thorpedo" beat Michael Phelps in the 200M freestyle final. I am not being unpatriotic but the whole Michael Phelps thing is getting a little bit over played. Plus Ian Thorpe is HOT!!

2. Paul Hamm's winning high bar routine. Three release moves in a row. That is strength!

3. The US's sweep of the 4 x 200 relay. That Klete Keller(I love saying that name) sure can swim. Plus a girl from WI was on the women's team. The men swam a GREAT race!

4. The US men's basketball team being kicked around by Portugal. Those guys needed to be knocked down a few pegs.

5. Watching the Shot Put on the ancient grounds in Olympia. That Adam Nelson is CRAZY!!!

6. Synchronized Diving who knew?

7. The young woman who placed second in whitewater rafting Rebecca Giddens is originally from Green Bay.

8. Who knew fencing was so cool? I didn't...

9. Men and Women's Gymnastics getting silver. It's not gold but it is the next best thing.

10. When Bob Costas doesn't talk.......That man could bore grass.

The Saga

Some of you may be wondering why I haven't written in a couple days. I usually try to post 4-5 times a week. First, I apologize because now you are going to have a super long post to get you up to date and because you have been checking in to see what is going on. So here is the story:

Monday was a normal day at work. I left work on time to head to the salon to try out a new place and see if it was good so that we could get our hair done there the day of the wedding. On my way home I make a stop to buy boxes for the jewelry for the maids and as I am checking out I get a phone call. It is my friend Heidi. As you may remember she recently got married. We make small talk as I am checking out. I start leaving and she says to me "I have something to tell you. Please don't be mad at me. I am pregnant!!!!!!" Good thing I wasn't driving too fast because I almost hit the stop sign in front of me. I still cannot believe it! I am so happy for them. They are going to make great parents! She thought that I would be mad because she will be pregnant for our wedding. I am not mad I just wanted her to be able to drink and have fun. I know, I know you can have fun without drinking.

SO, I get to Spring Green to the hair dresser. Hair looks great, I make wedding day appointments. I leave the shop and call Josh to tell him to turn his phone on so that Mitch can call him and tell him the good news. I chit chat for a while. Come to find out his car died on his way back to work after his lunch break. He had someone come pick him up and take him back to work. He thinks that it is either it ran out of gas or the fuel pump is broke.

So, I call my mom who is in Spring Green. When my brother's practice gets over we take some gas to try and get it running. It doesn't run so we decide to push it into a nearby parking lot. The parking lot was uphill and a right hand turn. My mom and I pushed and my brother steered the car. We got 3/4 way up the hill and couldn't push it any further. So my brother who is a little injured helped us up the hill the rest of the way. Since it was so closed to Josh's end of shift we stayed in RC until he was done a whole hour or so.

So I didn't get to see the Packer game. I didn't get to watch the men's all around gymnastics final. I gave up the whole night to help my future husband. We stayed up until midnight and we had to figure out how to get him to work on Tuesday. So we came up with the plan that my other brother would take him to work. I would go into work early so that I could leave to pick him up at the end of the day. My step-dad and brother came and picked up his car so that he wouldn't have to pay a towing bill. They got it home and checked it out last night and they still think that it is the fuel pump.

So Josh magically got out of stuffing invitations. All but 11 are stuffed and sealed waiting for stamps. Those will be sent out on Monday to keep with the two month deadline.

I guess that has been our week thus far. I carpooled with a lady from work so Josh has my car today. That is ok it keeps me from going out to lunch and spending money. I hope that the rest of the week is better. I am visiting my friend who had a baby this weekend so hopefully we will have a good time!!!!

Do you smell that?

That smell is football season officially starting in wisconsin. That's right the first Packer game is tonight. It is the stench of beer, brats and kraut the three main food groups for any Packer fan. I myself am looking very much forward to the football season. Brett Favre is threatening retirement and we need one more championship in his era.

There is nothing like the experience of a Packer game either. Sitting in the freezing cold with 60,000 other people shivering and cheering. Keeping warm with Hot Cocoa and Beer(pick your poison) Watching the Lambeau Leap, actually seeing Brett Favre in person. Sure you can't gawk over his handsomeness as you can on TV but this better. Cheering the GO PACK GO cheer. I was lucky enough to visit Lambeau before they renovated it. They say it feels the same but I was glad to experience it to know for sure. I hope to get to a game again soon. Lord knows I can't count on getting season tickets in my lifetime. I am about 28,000 on the list.....

P.S. I guess it was the players stinking that smelled not the brats. I only got to watch the low lights.......They better shape up!!!