Not All Sunshine and Roses... Who's Surprised?

Having a crappy day.  Don't suppose blogging about it will make me feel better, but what the hell - it's worth a shot.

On the bright side, my daughter has gone back to blogging!  This makes me happy.  Check out The Gibby blog listed over to the right. 

What else?  Well I mowed the yard today.  Not really by choice.  More like "if I do it will you get off my f-ing back?"  The only thing growing was weeds, and they were getting pretty tall.  Does the yard look any better?  Probably not.  Do I give a shit?  Probably not. 

I started watching Due Date last night.  Fell asleep.  Oh wait - I just remembered.  I don't like Robert Downey Jr.  Note to self -- return DVD to Netflix immediately.   I'm psyched that Bridesmaids is coming out on DVD next week.  Promised myself I'd see that one in the theater.  As usual, broke my promise.  Oh well. 

Going to a Scentsy/Premier Jewelry party tonight at my friend Trish's house.  Probably not buying any jewelry - the Premier stuff I have now looks like crap and can't be worn.  All discolored and/or tarnished.  Might buy a new Scentsy pot and some smelly stuff.  They have some new scents I'm looking forward to checking out.  Do I lead a glamorous life or what?

What else?  Wait, I already said that.  Is repeating yourself a sign of senility?  Well crap. 

Probably should have put a warning in the title -- today's post will either offend your or bring your mood down.  Or bore you to tears.  Don't even have the energy to care.  Don't like it don't read it.

Wait!  I didn't mean it!  Please read it! 

I've got to get a life.

Welcome To The Travel Channel, barb-wired style.

What's this?  A new blog post???  Is the world coming to an end?  Maybe, so I guess I'd better get the last word in, just in case!

Greg and I returned home yesterday from a short vacation.  We left Sunday around noon, headed north to Pawnee City, Nebraska (boyhood home of Larry the Cable Guy, FYI) and stopped at our favorite winery/brewery.  We sat out on the veranda and enjoyed some liquid refreshments for about an hour, and after purchasing a 2-3 day supply to go, headed to Beatrice.  I should tell you that when Greg and I go on a trip, we have different ideas of planning.  I prefer to research hotels, find the best hotel for the money - somewhere in the middle - and make reservations.  Greg on the other hand likes to gamble a bit.  Just drive, find a place that looks good enough and hope they have a room.  This makes me very uncomfortable.  In fact it brings back nightmares of a certain motel room in Bartlesville Oklahoma, which I will now try and erase from my mind.  Let me just say that I even called my mommmy to complain about it.  For all the good that did!  Anyway,  back to Beatrice.  I'd done my research, so I knew a little about the 3 or 4 hotels in town.  They all seemed pretty much the same, so of course we stopped at the cheapest one first.  That would  be the Econolodge, which as it turned out was very nice.  AND it had free wifi!   First night - successful! 

Monday morning we got up and drove to Hastings, and checked in at our old standby The X-L Motel.  We never have to worry about them being booked up.  The same can't be said for many hotels in Hastings, and for sure none of the hotels in Grand Island.  We've been staying at the X-L for almost 20 years now.  It's a "mom and pop" run business.  The current owners bought it probably 10 years ago, and I'm sorry to say, it's gone downhill ever since.  We decided this year would be the old X-L's swan song.  If we hadn't already paid for the room and if all other hotels hadn't been full, we would have moved on right then, but we didn't really have the option.  The great thing about the X-L is it's location.  It's within walking distance (even for me) of 2 great bar/grills.  Greg and his buddies have probably benefited the most from the close proximity.  If you know what I mean.  And if you know Greg, I think you do.  Next year we'll be staying on the north end of town, which will cut off about 15 minutes of drive time to Grand Island, so that will be nice.   

After we got checked in to the hotel, we headed over the Kearny.  There were 2 things we wanted to do there.  Most important (well to me anyway) was a visit to the Morris Cookbook Publishing Company.  They have a store there where they sell over-runs of cookbooks they've published at discount prices.  These are the type of cookbooks organizations and churches put together for fund raising.  Complete with recipes from all those wonderful cooks out there.  They normally sell for $15 and up, and they're worth every penny.  I purchased 10 cookbooks, received 3 free ones, and spent a whopping $27.  How awesome is that?  Our next stop was the Cabelas Flagship Store next door.  This was the original Cabelas, built I don't know when.  From the outside, the place looks huge.  What you can't tell is that the majority of the building must be devoted to distribution, or something like that.  The actually store was very small.  It was rather disappointing, since Greg really enjoys all the wildlife they have on display, and there wasn't much of it here.  We found a t-shirt for Carter, and that was it.  Guess we saved a lot of money!  On the way out, I did convince Greg to let me take his picture with a big grizzly bear to send to Carter.  I tried to get him to growl at the bear, or at least put up a fight, but guess that was asking too much.

Tuesday morning brought the real reason for the trip, the Annual Husker Harvest Days Farm Show.  It's the largest outdoor all-irrigated farm show in the USA.  We start out walking up and down the rows stopping in at tents or buildings to visit with companies selling everything a farmer could want and then some.  My job is to pick up freebies!  It's insane how crazy people go over reusable bags and ink pens!  You'd think they were the last of their kind.  We walked all morning, visiting now and then with some stranger about tires or combines or the weather.  At 11:00 Greg and I part ways - he heads out to the field demonstrations (his favorite part) where they combine acres and acres of corn with different brands of combines and show you the differences in the way they perform.  While he's doing that I hit the tents that are geared more towards us women folk, and pillage for more free stuff.  This year I created a family farm web page at one of the booths.  Should be interesting to see if I wind up doing anything with it!  But hey - it was free!  Again with the free stuff.  More more we want more!!  I lasted till about 1:30 then headed to the car.  Greg came along shortly after that, and we ate lunch.  Another tradition - we take stuff for sandwiches, chips, crackers, fruit, um beer, and eat at the car.  It's a nice break, and couldn't possibly have anything to do with the fact that they don't sell beer at the show.  Right?  After lunch, Greg headed back in to finish checking out the vendors, and I took a nice little nap! 

Wednesday morning, after eating breakfast at the OK Cafe (what is it with this town and the initials?) we headed for home.  Along the way, we drove up into the hills to get a closer view of some wind generators.  Those things are so big and just amazing to see. 

We saw off in the distance one that was only partially completed, with a crane sitting next to it.  We drove over to it, hoping to get to see them putting the last blade on, but there was no one working.  Figured it was too windy to do it.  That would have been really awesome to watch.

So that was our trip.  Today was  back to work for both of us.  I've got lots to do in two days, but it was worth it.  Next trip up for me is in Kansas City at the end of the month for my Company C Reunion.  Can't wait!!!