Fun times were had by all

I'm not sure why I titled tonight's blog that but it sounded good. I want to start off by sharing my million dollar idea I had at the wedding reception last weekend. I forgot to include it in my blog last time so I will bless you all with my infinite wisdom now. Sitting at the reception last Saturday talking with Desi's friends and Luke, the groom, came up and joined us and asked why none of us were out front playing. We all just kind of looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders. So after a few minutes, Luke said "well. I'm going to go play some more testicle toss." After he left, I looked at Desi and asked "Did he just say testicle toss?" She said yes and explained that some people refer to ladder golf as that. Once we went out front and I saw what ladder golf is, it all made much more sense. Anyway, before we went out front and we were sitting there chatting, I came up with my million dollar idea. Actually, it's not really going to make me a million dollars but maybe it will raise a million dollars. So there is this little town next to Iron Mountain called Spread Eagle, Wisconsin. True story. So I am going to have an annual "Testicle Toss Tournament" in Spread Eagle, WI and raise money for prostate cancer research. Ta dah! You can all stop reading and take a moment to revel in my comedic timing and my ingenuity. Two for one... This week's adventures took me to Madison, WI for a site visit and the only thing I can really comment on about Madison is that is was freaking HOT. I mean 100+ hot. So needless to say, I didn't spend much time outside. It is a beautiful city and is surrounded by lakes so I would like to go there sometime when I'm not working and explore. My run that morning (Tuesday) was tough though. It was already 80 degrees at 5:30am and downtown Madison is mostly hills so...yeah. But I did it and that is the important thing. I also had the pleasure of going to Price County, WI this week for an outreach event. One of the things I love about my job and working for VA is getting to go to events like this and talk with the Vets and hear their stories. It really is a humbling experience. BTW...there is apparently a POW who is still being held by the Taliban and has been since 2009. He is the only remaining POW from the current conflicts. If you want to know more, do a google search for Bowe Bergdahl. It's kind of interesting. Here are some pics from my trip to Price County.

Okay, I had to take a pic of that because SERIOUSLY? Who needs to be reminded to not leave thier child unattended in a public restroom on a changing table? Amazing, really. But here are some other pics. Turns out there is a Wisconsin Concrete Park with nothing but statues made from concrete. And it's not a little park. I didn't check out the whole thing since I was in a government car and I am a responsible gov't employee. I just pulled over and took these pictures. I thought it was kind of cool and I might have to go back sometime and check out the whole thing.

But my favorite part of the trip going down Highway 8 (which I've done a few times now) is this (I had to break it up in two collages but it's all in line in person). It's in front of a few houses and I think was a group effort by the neighbors.

So that brings us to yesterday... I want you all to know that one of the areas I have been working on in my leadership program is my Emotional Intelligence (aka not getting worked up in stressful situations or letting my emotions get the best of me). So I called the bike shop where I had stopped a few weeks ago to order a new battery for my bike. They told me they would call me when it came in and they would come pick up my bike and take it back to the shop and change the battery. Well, when I called yesterday, they apparently had never ordered my battery. Hmm...okay. So after work I took my happy ass over there and politely let them know how unhappy I was and long story short...they ordered my battery, gave me 15% off and one of the guys helping me said he would personally come to my house and replace the battery so that I didn't have to have them come pick it up, etc. All that and I didn't even have to yell. See, I am growing! :) I'm off to Denver tomorrow for leadership, speaking of. It should be an interesting week for many reasons. It's the assessment center week which basically means they throw us into mock scenarios where we are the leaders and have to deal with situations and they critique us, etc. The other reason is because we are going to be in Aurora. If you don't know why that is significant, turn on your TV. But I do get to see some friends I haven't seen in years so very excited about that!! And thanks to Tania for watching Rolo this week!!

Adult Supervision Required

What a week! I had a mid-week trip to Milwaukee for a planning session which allowed me drive time to get to know one of my co-workers better. We had a great time! As I always try to do in my blog, I promised her I wouldn't name names. Primarily because she may have overshot the parking spaces in the government van a few times but we won't discuss that! So on the way down, we stopped at a gas station outside Fond du Lac (I think) and they had Diet Gold Peak tea in a bottle. Now, this may not seem like much to any of you but I cannot find DIET Gold Peak anywhere in the greater Iron Mountain micropolitan area. Yes, that's a word. Look it up! Anyway, so I told my co-worker that we would have to stop at that gas station on our way home so I could buy a few to take home. When we pulled in on our return trip, she joked to me that I should ask them if I could buy a case. As she came out of the restroom, I was walking out with a case of Gold Peak in my arms. She laughed so hard she had to stop in her tracks. Apparently, she didn't think I would really do it!! And when I go to Madison this week, I will be checking all of the gas stations to see if I can find more! It's SOOOO good! The other stop on the way home was at this place.

Only the best homemade ice cream in the world. Holy canoli!! And I might have overdone it a bit. I had a scoop of Smores and a scoop of Firecracker (vanilla, I think, with raspberry and blueberry swirl). Then I went back and got a very large ice cream cookie sandwich with homemade M & M cookies! It was so tasty. I thought my co-worker was going to fall over she was laughing so hard! And, not surprisingly, I didn't have to have dinner that night and I was barely hungry for breakfast the next morning! One of the best parts of the week, though, was this weekend. My friend Desi was in Wisconsin for a wedding and I was her date. For those of you who don't know Desi, she lives in Memphis now but is from WI. So the wedding was in Hurley which is about 2.5 hours from Iron Mountain and, apparently, is known for having an abundance of strip clubs downtown. Turns out, though, that you can have all kinds of crazy fun in Hurley without going to the strip clubs. Well, you can if you are Desi and MK and have a smidge too much to drink. I'm pretty sure that tiny town (population 1500) will NEVER be the same again. And this morning they were all probably talking about the crazy girls from out of town! But we had a blast! And being the responsible adults we are, neither of us drove. Though we might have hitch-hiked. Now don't flip out. It's not as bad as it sounds. We were walking down the street from the hotel to the bars and this car passed us and turned around and the lady in the back seat asked us if we knew where Pizza Hut was. We laughed and said we had no idea and then I asked her if she could give us a ride. Her 11 year old son and teenage nephew were in the car as well so we figured we were safe. And it saved us from walking a mile into town. Of course, we had to walk that mile back to the hotel at the end of the night. And boy was that an entertaining walk. Somehow, I tripped and rolled down a small hill. But my hip was ok.

So breakfast/lunch this morning looked like this...guess which one is mine? (HINT: not the healthy one).

So it's probably a good thing Desi and I don't live in the same place anymore. And it's probably better for the small towns in the midwest!

Why are we so hard on ourselves?

This morning was my first 5K since my injury/surgery and, as I've said before, I was very anxious. Apparently, I was more anxious than I thought. When I got to registration, they didn't have my name on the list. I tried to remain calm as they told me that I would have to register again and then they would refund me once they confirmed I had already paid. Well, as you can imagine, this did not make me happy. So the lady "in charge" went to find the coordinator to figure out what to do. In the meantime, as others were registering, I was looking at the registration list and guess what? They had me listed as Kay, Mary. I couldn't believe it. So, of course, I corrected them :) Once that was all taken care of, I went back to my car to stretch, etc and that's when my wonderful brother called! It was during this conversation that I realized I was more worried/scared about this race than I had realized. I started crying, of course, about what if it hurts, blah blah blah. In true big brother fashion, he calmed me down and reassured me. So off I went.

Apparently, I missed the memo on how many hills were on this course. And they were not little hills. Here's the first one...

Okay, so you can't really tell from this picture but I promise it was a big hill. And there were several others like it. I ran up some and had to walk up others. Overall, I was glad my hip didn't hurt but very upset that I had to walk so much. I could sit here and list excuses/reasons why I had to walk but that won't help anything. So here are some other pics from the race today.

What A Beautiful Day!

I was up early this morning (8am) to go float down the Pine River with the Young Professionals group here and I am so glad I did. It was such fun!! And, of course, I was the resident photographer! There were about 8 of us and no one on the river but us. Gorgeous!!

Tomorrow is the 5K race so tonight will be low key. But as promised, here are pictures of my brother with hair.

Hit the Ground Running

So the lesson this week...it is not good to go more than a week without running for when you go again, you feel like your lungs will explode and your whole body wants to collapse. I'm going to blame it on the jet lag. Yep. That sounds like a fantastic reason why my run tonight was so tough. But, the important thing is that I ran. And I did nearly 3 miles. Now mind you, some of that was walking but there's nothing that says I have to run the entire half-marathon, right? I just have to finish. Preferably standing up right and not crawling on all fours. Speaking of the half-marathon...THANK YOU to those of you who have donated to my St. Jude page. If you haven't, here's the link. http://heroes.stjude.org/runshoegirlrun Any amount is greatly appreciated. While the race is not until December, I have to recommit to the $2500 by September or forfeit my entry so your contribution now is greatly appreciated. In preparation/training, I am running a local 5K on Sunday. I am excited/nervous. This is the first race I've done since my injury (last November) and will be the furthest distance I've done since I was cleared to run again. I am sure everything will be fine but there's always that little bit of hesitation. I haven't decided which super cute running outfit I will wear yet but I will post pics because I know you all will be waiting with baited breath to find out! I took some time yesterday to put my home office together a little more and came across pictures from high school and college. WOW! I have not changed at all. Other than the color of my hair. No wonder people think I look so young! I am going to scan some pics in this weekend and will post them for all to share. Especially the ones with my brother when he had a full head of hair. Really. Truly. He did!! Hope everyone has a happy Friday!

Back to the Real World

Well, I'm home. Not excited about it but I am. However, the plane trip home was fabulous! We flew business class from Paris to Minneapolis and First Class to KC. It was sad to leave KC though. Not much else to say about the trip. It think the pictures say it for me.