Thursday, June 02, 2005
Arthur Julian - now with picture!
Congratulations to my brother, sister-in-law and nephew (Ollie) on the new addition to their family as of 6/1/2005, Arthur Julian. It's starting to sound like a course in post-Roman, British kingship at their house.
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Randomness
Insofar as it's what's left over in my head today.
1.) We're going to appreciate Steve in our neighborhood (see the last post). I heard a whisper that the previous owners of his house may be leaving because there are too many "blacks" (i.e. Hispanics and Asians) in the nighborhood. Good riddance, eh. We'll be glad to see your moving van.
2.) The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - only a 50% on RottenTomatoes and yet I really liked it. I chucked all the way through the thing.
3.) A wonderful (and scary) article from The Revealer, Soldiers of Christ - Inside America's most powerful megachurch - an article for Harper's. Absolutely worth reading. Well written and some moments that are hilarious and terrifying at the same moment. I think Mean Mr. Mustard and Klund will appreciate the part where one of the worshippers starts talking about Lord of the Rings and Christianity and their similarities (do a search on Balrog).
4.) 'Ana' and the Anorexics, from Yahoo - I'd read about this a few months ago in another article - it has me paranoid about those wrist bracelets. You can tie it back into #3 if you like - there's a similar mindset.
1.) We're going to appreciate Steve in our neighborhood (see the last post). I heard a whisper that the previous owners of his house may be leaving because there are too many "blacks" (i.e. Hispanics and Asians) in the nighborhood. Good riddance, eh. We'll be glad to see your moving van.
2.) The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - only a 50% on RottenTomatoes and yet I really liked it. I chucked all the way through the thing.
3.) A wonderful (and scary) article from The Revealer, Soldiers of Christ - Inside America's most powerful megachurch - an article for Harper's. Absolutely worth reading. Well written and some moments that are hilarious and terrifying at the same moment. I think Mean Mr. Mustard and Klund will appreciate the part where one of the worshippers starts talking about Lord of the Rings and Christianity and their similarities (do a search on Balrog).
4.) 'Ana' and the Anorexics, from Yahoo - I'd read about this a few months ago in another article - it has me paranoid about those wrist bracelets. You can tie it back into #3 if you like - there's a similar mindset.
Creepier Reasons Christy could be my ex-wife
I forgot, there are creepier reasons Christy could be my ex-wife.
1.) I have her ex's old cell phone number. I freaked them out one day by calling her phone and making it look as though he were calling himself from his own number.
2.) He really is moving in two doors down. We're going to be neighbors! Welcome to the neighborhood, Steve.
1.) I have her ex's old cell phone number. I freaked them out one day by calling her phone and making it look as though he were calling himself from his own number.
2.) He really is moving in two doors down. We're going to be neighbors! Welcome to the neighborhood, Steve.
Ferting
We accomplished a lot of yardwork this weekend. Pooteewheet fertilized the yard, which Eryn kept referring to (from her swimming pool, primarily) as "Mommy ferting" - which sounds either really nasty, or really gross.
Eryn directing from the swimming pool:
We also destroyed the ugly pine shrubs in our back yard. I have an in-process picture:
as well as an action shot:
And we also planted a new flowering tree that Grandpa Larry brought to the house - it's my goal to get some trees back there this year. Eryn liked the new tree - she and Grandpa spent some time watering it.
Eryn directing from the swimming pool:
We also destroyed the ugly pine shrubs in our back yard. I have an in-process picture:
as well as an action shot:
And we also planted a new flowering tree that Grandpa Larry brought to the house - it's my goal to get some trees back there this year. Eryn liked the new tree - she and Grandpa spent some time watering it.
Sword Fighting
One of the interesting things that happened this weekend was that my neighbors (actually their son and his girlfriend) decided to engage in sword fighting in the back yard. Not white trash, pruning-the-bushes talk-with-the-cops sword fighting (you have to talk to my friend DannyJo about how that works), fortunately, but stage-fighting practice. Here's a picture Pooteewheet sneaked of them practising their craft - she's got a career ahead of her as paparazzi.
My father, who's currently in town, suggested I take my sword (a graduation present for my Master's degree from him) out and fight with them. At one point they left the swords sitting out there unattended, points first in the ground (and Mean Mr. Mustard thinks a trampoline is an attractive nuisance). Pooteewheet suggested I stand out there between the unattended swords with my claymore screaming "there can be only one!"
My father, who's currently in town, suggested I take my sword (a graduation present for my Master's degree from him) out and fight with them. At one point they left the swords sitting out there unattended, points first in the ground (and Mean Mr. Mustard thinks a trampoline is an attractive nuisance). Pooteewheet suggested I stand out there between the unattended swords with my claymore screaming "there can be only one!"
Koku
This probably won't make any sense to anyone but my gaming friends, but this is the largest damn koku I've ever seen. I wonder if it would buy a correspondingly larger ninja.Note that my pre-1995 copy of Shogun was once worth $200 until they re-released it. If I had known they were going to re-release it, I might have sold it.
(via Answers.com)
Shogun (later renamed Samurai Swords in 1995) was a board game released in 1986 by game maker Milton Bradley as part of their Gamemaster Series. Set in feudal Japan, players take control of a fictional warlord and pit their armies against one another in hopes of winning the title Shogun. Along with Axis and Allies, Samurai Swords is still being manufactured as of 2004.
In 1988, Shogun won the Origins Awards for Best Pre-20th Century Boardgame of 1987 and Best Graphic Presentation of a Boardgame of 1987 .
Friday, May 27, 2005
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
My favorite article of the day
Although I think I missed the actual event - bummer.
Wrestling for Jesus by Bob Shaw, Pioneer Press (St. Paul)
"In his role as a fisher of men, Ted DiBiase says some fish 'require different bait.' He and his friends cast their lure from the mat."
My favorite bits:
"Then DiBiase came into the ring, dressed in a business suit. His smooth and oily character, the Million Dollar Man, tempts wrestlers with money if they will "sell out" to return to the fast life of limos, women and addictions.
DeBiase's offers rose to $10 million, and ended with a blank check. Why wouldn't the wrestlers take the money?
Then The Animal, who talks like a metal shredder, shouted, "If you shut your big trap we'll tell you why." They couldn't be corrupted, said The Animal, because they were following Jesus' footsteps."
and...
"As Black Stallion ran around the perimeter of the ring, he slapped the hands of his fans. One was John Martinson of Burnsville. "This is confusing, but fun," Martinson shouted.
He was there for the wrestling, not the message — he wanted autographs on his hat, because his other autograph-bearing hat had been "sprayed on" by his cat."
Wrestling for Jesus by Bob Shaw, Pioneer Press (St. Paul)
"In his role as a fisher of men, Ted DiBiase says some fish 'require different bait.' He and his friends cast their lure from the mat."
My favorite bits:
"Then DiBiase came into the ring, dressed in a business suit. His smooth and oily character, the Million Dollar Man, tempts wrestlers with money if they will "sell out" to return to the fast life of limos, women and addictions.
DeBiase's offers rose to $10 million, and ended with a blank check. Why wouldn't the wrestlers take the money?
Then The Animal, who talks like a metal shredder, shouted, "If you shut your big trap we'll tell you why." They couldn't be corrupted, said The Animal, because they were following Jesus' footsteps."
and...
"As Black Stallion ran around the perimeter of the ring, he slapped the hands of his fans. One was John Martinson of Burnsville. "This is confusing, but fun," Martinson shouted.
He was there for the wrestling, not the message — he wanted autographs on his hat, because his other autograph-bearing hat had been "sprayed on" by his cat."
Monday Evening
So last night I took the Light Rail downtown (end to end - Mall of America to 5th and Nicollet) to a dinner and roundtable hosted by Magenic at Morton's: "The Intersection of OO and Microsoft Productivity Products" presented by Rockford Lhotka (who I once heard speak about .NET at work). Our architect was supposed to go, but he was out of town, so he passed it on to me. The presentation was fine - extremely short, I think it was a chance to wine-and-dine potential customers and allow some networking - and primarily about the direction Magenic sees the trends going as far as where your logical layers live and how you access them. The official spiel stated:
"Many developers work to build object-oriented software solutions, often using business entity objects. At the same time, businesses are increasingly using productivity products such as BizTalk Server, SharePoint Portal Server and Microsoft Office to build applications. How do these concepts intersect? Can OO design be used in a BizTalk or SharePoint solution? Can Office be used as a front-end or reporting tool for an application based on business objects?"
The dinner itself was excellent - everyone but me and the only guy evidently not from the U.S. originally had steak - I had salmon in a butter sauce. It was my attempt to regulate how much I was eating which was entirely offset by the real mashed potatoes and the bottle of red wine they tricked me into drinking by filling the glass every time I wasn't looking. There were managers and tech vps and various tech-oriented individuals from about a dozen companies like GMAC and Dow Jones - all of them extremely interested in how I fit in with my company as a lot of them actually sell us information or services or compete in some way.
I got to ask Rockford the question I always wanted to ask him - do people think you look like Chris Sells (pic)? The official answer is that the DevelopMentor people in particular always note that. They both even have/had the word 'Evangelist' in their job title for a while - so they're alike in many ways. When Rocky said "and good things happen...then you send it somewhere else...and good things happen", he even sounded like Chris.
I also had the very weird experience of seeing a guy in an orange Blubber Run t-shirt on a bike on the corner after I got off the train. I thought, "cool, Blubber Run" and then quickly realized, "Damn weird, that's my brother in law, Ceri." He bikes home from downtown every day - I didn't even know where he worked, I just happened to be walking by as he was headed home. I guess that's proof that the metropolitan area is still pretty small when you get right down to it.
"Many developers work to build object-oriented software solutions, often using business entity objects. At the same time, businesses are increasingly using productivity products such as BizTalk Server, SharePoint Portal Server and Microsoft Office to build applications. How do these concepts intersect? Can OO design be used in a BizTalk or SharePoint solution? Can Office be used as a front-end or reporting tool for an application based on business objects?"
The dinner itself was excellent - everyone but me and the only guy evidently not from the U.S. originally had steak - I had salmon in a butter sauce. It was my attempt to regulate how much I was eating which was entirely offset by the real mashed potatoes and the bottle of red wine they tricked me into drinking by filling the glass every time I wasn't looking. There were managers and tech vps and various tech-oriented individuals from about a dozen companies like GMAC and Dow Jones - all of them extremely interested in how I fit in with my company as a lot of them actually sell us information or services or compete in some way.
I got to ask Rockford the question I always wanted to ask him - do people think you look like Chris Sells (pic)? The official answer is that the DevelopMentor people in particular always note that. They both even have/had the word 'Evangelist' in their job title for a while - so they're alike in many ways. When Rocky said "and good things happen...then you send it somewhere else...and good things happen", he even sounded like Chris.
I also had the very weird experience of seeing a guy in an orange Blubber Run t-shirt on a bike on the corner after I got off the train. I thought, "cool, Blubber Run" and then quickly realized, "Damn weird, that's my brother in law, Ceri." He bikes home from downtown every day - I didn't even know where he worked, I just happened to be walking by as he was headed home. I guess that's proof that the metropolitan area is still pretty small when you get right down to it.
My Bring-to-work Coffee
My bring-to-work coffee really sucks lately - it tastes watery and has a faint taste like I used weird water. It tasted fine this weekend out of the pot and I used the same blend I used this morning - so I'm a little confused. Sure, it's light roast - but I've used two different kinds and haven't liked the flavor of either lately - I'm beginning to suspect it's either the filter or my thermos, although I clean the damn things often - but maybe they need to soak with some soap in them to really clean up the sides and etch the metal (mmm....metal). I've only noticed the difference since I switched coffee machines as well, so maybe some experimentation is in order until I figure out how to brew the perfect pot.
Not that this in any way means I won't give the stuff to Erik when he shows up this morning.
Not that this in any way means I won't give the stuff to Erik when he shows up this morning.
Monday, May 23, 2005
A Nursing Conversation With My Sister
From: Allison
Sent: Friday, May 20, 2005 3:59 PM
To: Scott
Subject: Re: For Allison
Pills and panties is what being a student nurse is all about.
--- scott wrote:
> I notice that they'll be showing "The Student Nurses" by Roger Corman
> at the Walker Art Center tonight at 9:00 p.m. On the surface it's
> "all pills and panties".
>
> It's part of the Women with Vision series.
Sent: Friday, May 20, 2005 3:59 PM
To: Scott
Subject: Re: For Allison
Pills and panties is what being a student nurse is all about.
--- scott wrote:
> I notice that they'll be showing "The Student Nurses" by Roger Corman
> at the Walker Art Center tonight at 9:00 p.m. On the surface it's
> "all pills and panties".
>
> It's part of the Women with Vision series.
Sunday, May 22, 2005
All About my Grandmother
Seeing as my great aunt just died, I realized I still had this on my computer. It's an interview I did with my grandmother in 1995. It's incredibly long for a blog post, but if your grandmother is still alive, I recommend doing something similar - I learned quite a bit I hadn't known before the interview.
Interview with Madeline McVay (Maiden Name: McBurney).
13 May 1995, by Scott D. McVay (Madeline is my paternal grandmother).
[When were you born?] July 14, 1915 in Plentywood Montana...straight north of us on Highway 16, just before you go into Canada.
[What are your parents names?] William and Mary Haase, er, yeah Haase, I went by Haase all the time...My real name was McBurney. I never knew my dad, he left us when I was a baby. I always knew Haase as my dad. You know Lonny.
[What do you remember about school?] Well, when I was, my first year in school I was six years old and my dad gave me a black and white Shetland and I rode him 3 miles to school; winter and summer. [You rode a horse to school?] Uh-huh. I rode a little black and white Shetland. [What was his name?] That, I don't, I think I called him Sheldie. I think I called him Sheldie. And he would buck me off. He'd take me to the top of the hill and buck me off. And then dad, when I'd get out at 4 o'clock, there was my horse in the corral waiting for me. And he'd bring me home real good, and he did that for, oh, maybe the first year of my school, or, half of the year. Then he got over it and he would take me o.k.
[What did you study at school?] Oh, every subject that you can think of. We had music, pledge allegiance, arithmetic, history, geography, algebra, mmmm....reading, spelling. I was good in spelling, I won, competed, when I was 10 years old for the spelling bee, I competed with 26 schools and won. [Was spelling your favorite subject then?] That and ah, arithmetic I guess, ah, Algebra, whatever you want to call it, those were my two favorites.
[What did you think you were going to do when you got older?] I wanted to be a nurse. [Why didn't you become a nurse?] Didn't have any money to back me (laughs). In those days we didn't know what money was. If you saw a penny now and then you were lucky. [How well off were your parents compared to the other people in town?] We were comfortable. We had a radio and we had a car, and most of them didn't have that at that time in this community. Model T-Ford. (what color) Black. The first thing I can remember, I wasn't very old, was first we had a buggy and the most beautiful team, black team, of horses to go with it. That's the first, and I can't remember them too much. And then when Dad got the model-t I went with him that day to get it and when he was coming home he run into a telephone pole and he said, "Don't tell your mom, don't you dare tell your mom." I never did. He was learning how to drive...that was the first thing I learned to drive, and I couldn't have been very old.
[What did you parents do for a living?] Ranched, wheat and cattle. At Girard, MT. Way down here close to Sidney. Mom and I moved down there later (to Girard) when she married my stepdad. [how old were you when you moved?] About a year old. [How big was the ranch?] Oh, gee I don't know, when they homesteaded it was the size of a homestead, how many acres would that be? Don isn't here or I'd ask him. [I think that's like 160 maybe, or did you get 640) Probably 640, it was pretty good size.
[Stories when little]. Oh, I don't know if they'd be interesting. But, I'll never forget, a neighbor boy and I, the same age, and it was snowing hard we didn't know how dangerous it was, and we'd come home from school. When it was too bad they always come and got us with a sleigh and horses. So this night then, he walked halfway from his house to mine, we were about a half a mile apart, and he walked, instead of coming on home, we got the bright idea to follow the creek. It was starting to storm pretty hard so we crawled in a snowbank to get kinda warm and outta the wind, on the creek bank. Well, here was my dad out on the saddlehorse and his dad with the team and sleigh out looking for us. And we heard the horses or something, we heard some noise anyhow and we come out. And I won't never forget it because we both got spanked for not going home. I was about eight years old. Seven or eight. It was a lotta fun trackin rabbit tracks, and then the storm came up.
[In school, did they teach girls different things then they taught boys?] Ah, I think it was just an all around, everybody was in the same class. Everybody. There were about 24 of us all together. And the only thing I can remember back then was the big Christmas programs at Christmas time and everybody come....always in the play. Uh-huh, I was always one of the, cause I could memorize, I don't know why, but they just put me in, I could memorize. So...that was, I always remember that. Oh, when we had, in the spring they had the lay dance, a great big wire circle with wreaths on it, and we'd dance to that music and dance, and, everybody would come see that again. They did a lot of things in the schools then that they don't do now. One thing I can remember, when we'd come to town, it'd take all day and half the night, but we always had those big rocks, then they'd heat em in the oven all night and ready for the next day to keep our feet warm and those rocks would stay warm for a good 24 hours. And that's what they'd heat the sled with that we went to town in the wintertime and that was a big treat for us. And that was to Fairview, MT, that's beside Sidney here, Fairview. We'd come in there and they had a big pop factory. And dad would stop off there and we'd have free pop, and then we'd go to the cheese factory, and we'd get free cheese. And that was a big treat to me. And then they'd buy bananas. Those great big, they were about 6 or 8 feet long, and they'd hang them in the hallway at home, where they wouldn't freeze and they'd stay. I don't know if you've ever seen that or not, those big bunches of bananas right off the tree? [No, I've just seen the little bunches at the store]. Yeah, that's all you see now, but we used to get them a good 4 feet long, at least I think, as I remember (laughs)--it was a lot of bananas.
[Do you remember any effects of the depression-did it have effects on the town?] Yes it did. We always made it because we lived on the farm and there was Artesian water and we could water our garden. We had about the nicest garden of anybody. But there never was wheat to sell, or maybe we could get enough to trade for a sack of flour for winter. No, the depression hurt, and had to get rid of all the cattle because there wasn't food to feed them...back in the '30's.
[When did you first meet grandpa?] When did I meet grandpa? In '35, 1935. He was just home from college. [Did you go to school with him?] Well, he said he knew me in high school, but I didn't....I was a blue-eyed platinum blonde. I had hair, long curly hair, mother always kept it that way from the time I was a little girl till I grew up, through high school, I had long blonde hair, white hair. [Where'd you go to high school at?]. Sidney. I come in and worked for my room and board, my folks never came in. I came in and worked for my room board. [You moved there from where the ranch was?] Uh huh. [Why did you choose to go there?] The closest one. And, oh, I think that's all I can...it was just nice to be here, and I found that place, that home I could work for. [What kind of work did you do?] Just house, everything, housework, and got three children off to school too, besides myself. [What family did you work for?] Pardon? [What was their name?] Bill Dorrs. [How old were you when you moved there?] About 13. I never went back home, nuh-uh. I never was home again. Because I kept working. I had house work and then I worked for the Eagle Cafe waiting tables. [Isn't there still an Eagle Cafe in Sidney?] It's still there, m-hmmm. And I'll tell you something, your mom worked there when she was in high school (laughs). [When did you start work at the Eagle Cafe, were you working for the Dorrs at the same time?] Bout my second year I was in Sidney I started working part time, I worked for the manager of the restaurant, and then I helped at the restaurant occasionally, and that's where I got my training.
[Grandpa had gone away to college?] Yea, he'd gone after he'd graduated from high school. He'd majored in chemistry. [Had you had any plans to go to college?] Yes I did. I planned on going to Mankato, MN. But I didn't get there. I had a teacher when I was about the 8th grade and she'd graduated from there and it sounded good. So that's where I was gonna go. [Where you going to go there to be a nurse?] I went, mm-hmmm, but I went instead after Don and I were married, grandpa and I were married. We went to Chico State, Don went on to get a degree, a higher degree, so I went and I majored in, ahh....bookkeeping and ah, accounting, at Chico State California. One year, one year of college in. [Did you move out to Chico then?] We stayed one winter because we were looking for work. I was lucky, I found work as a hostess for the college. But Don couldn't get work out there, so we came back and started farming. [What year did you go to Chico?] Let's see, we were married in '36, so '37 then. [So you were married a year after he came back?] Uh-huh.
[Was grandpa in World War II?] No...he was in the national guard. [He didn't have to leave you behind?] No. Uh-uh. That was when, during World War II, everything we made we put into bonds to help out and we were kinda hard pinched at home, but we made it. We thought they needed the money, so we put everything into bonds. Later years it helped us out, cause that money built up. And we could do things with it. I think the first thing we did was buy a new car. [When did you get your first car?] The first one we had was, ah, a Dodge Rumbleseat, back in '36. And then the next one was, ah, our first new one I think was.... What was our first new Dodge Don? Our brand new one that we bought? It was that Dodge with the tail fins, wasn't it? [mumbling off tape] Pardon? A '49. [Your first car lasted 13 years?] No. Oh, Don said a '51 Plymouth was the first one that we owned, with tail fins, and '49 didn't have...no we traded about every 2 years or 4 years because Dad was on the road a lot. [What was he doing on the road?] He was a chemist out of Denver for 3 or 4 states, for Wyoming, Montana, North and South Dakota. [Were you at home by yourself a lot?] Yes I was. Uh-huh. [What did you do with your time?] I milked the cows. We had a cow or two. I lived on the ranch, and I had two little girls. And...Judy and Joanne. And..cause Don was just working at Holly Sugar as a chemist at that time, just during the winter when the campaign was on. And...so he was out on that for Rogers Chemical out of Denver. And then he went to everyday, yearround, at Holly Sugar. And when he retired after 45 years he was superintendent of the mill. They put him from the lab out to the mill.
[What did you do for fun on the farm?] Oh, we did lots. Mostly picnics, take long drives. We'd save up the gas money for gas and take long drives and see how the other farmers were doing. And visit the different cities and my uncle, I had an uncle and aunt in Canada, near Regina, and we'd go up to see them. We did a lot of picnics with Fred and Lorraine Haase and their kids. And we did, had a lot of picnics together. The biggest picnic I can remember, we took the big grain truck, and all the dinner was in it, and all the kids, and I rode back there with the kids. And Don was driving, and somebody, I can't remember, but all my relatives. And, Brown, Lawrence Brown from Savage and their family. And we all went to Medora, South Dakota, and had a big picnic for the fourth of July. It was great back then, we had a lot of picnics and they always seemed to congregate at our ranch. At Don's and my's ranch. We had a lot of trees out there if you remember. And we had a lot of picnics out there. [So the neighbors all came for picnics too, or just your relatives?] Everybody, the whole community would come.
[Did you have a house in town then? When did you get the house?] The house in town? When they started school, we had five miles to school, out at the ranch. So when Joanne and Judy were old enough to start school we bought this house, 50, what is it now, no 58 years ago. 58 years ago we bought this house in Sidney. [Where were you living at the farm?] We had a house out at the farm? [The little one?] It was pretty good sized. And it's funny, the neighbors, we moved his mom's house, ahh...grandma's house down there, it was empty. And then we added on Grandpa Norgard's, we always called him Grandpa Norgard from ND. And we moved that on to the place and added on. So we had a pretty good sized home. We had running water, Don hooked up a pump that you pumped water. And we had a sink in the kitchen. We were quite modernized. And we had a outdoor toilet. There's another name for them, but, outhouse. There you go, that sounds better. And Don, then, to start with, all we had was kerosene or gas, but later, when the electricity come in, the children were still little then, and Don wired it for electricity and we had heat out there, so it wasn't too bad. Till we got the indoor plumbing.
[What years were your children born?] Yeah, Joanne was, Joanne and Judy, one was in February '39, and Judy was December '39. And then five years later, I think five years later, John came along. I never can remember John and Gail. [John was born in November]. In November, and Gail was born in January, 21st, and John was 29th of November. It was during the beginning of Word War II. Don? Don. What year was Johnny born? '39? '45? Was it 44 and 45? It was the first world, second world, second war. We were in San Francisco and came home. [What were you doing in San Francisco?] We were just visiting and touring. And John was born that November. [Were you on vacation?] Yes, uh-huh. [Did you vacation often?] Just about once, oh, whenever we could get the money I had to go (laughs). [So, did you get to see lots of the U.S.?] We did, we traveled, Don's folks lived at Chico, CA, and it seems like Johnny was born, or Gail, in '45. '44 and '45? [If he was born in November '44, it would have been hard to have Gail in January '45]. No, we'd have to put her a year ahead. Ah...I didn't look that up. [I can ask John when he was born]. It's in the, it's in the big Bible in there. Don's gonna look right away quick. [Was it important to send your kids to school]. Yeah, I didn't, we just went out to the form after school was out every year after that.
[What did you do while your kids were in school? Did you take care of them? Did you have a job still?] No, I didn't have a job, but I was, um...let's see, wait'll I find my note on that [she had written two pages in preparation of the phone interview]. I was, ah, (pause). I was a Girl Scout leader for 16 years in Sidney. And, I was active in the band and PTA. And, helping four children get a good education, and music was our biggest hobby. They knew how to play the, all four knew how to play the piano. And all four were in the band. I was a Demoly Mother for four years. [A Demoly Mother? How do you spell that?] Uh-huh, D-e-m-o-l-y. I just had it yesterday and I laid it right there on the table, Don, underneath that other table in the corner, by the fireplace [speaking to husband regarding the Bible she's looking for]. [What's a Demoly Mother?] It's a lodge for boys, and John was very active in Demoly. [What did they do?] Oh, Don, what did they do in Demoly? Can you explain it? Pardon? It's sponsored by the Masonic Lodge, and they learned, oh, how to treat a girl nice, their manners, and how to treat a girl nice, and they would have parties, and ask girls, and everybody would come dressed up, you had to be formal. They did a lot of good for the community if somebody elderly needed help, they were always there to help.
[What did you do with the Girl Scouts?] With the Girl Scouts? I took 'em through, clear through to their nurses, that was the last one, it was the top in Girl Scouts, all the farther they could go, and I shoulda kept on that last year that they needed the nurses training 'cause I had one year nurses training in high school, and I knew, um, oh what did, Scott, what do you call, um, everybody takes it every year, that training, first aid, there you go. And I could have, I found out afterwards, that I could have graduated them all the way, but I thought it had to be a registered nurse. But they went all the way to that, to getting their nurses first aid. [So you taught girl scouts job skills?] It could be, that, yeah, we did a lot of camping, we made a lot of, mostly we entertained our, their parents, to dinners and they learned how to cook, and....(stops). [What did you do for the PTA?] I was secretary for several years. I don't think, I can't remember if I made President or not, but I know I was secretary. Oh, and I was, an Eastern Star. [What's an Eastern Star?] That's a branch of Masonic Lodge. Don, your grandpa, is a 50 year, over a 50 year, member now, and he's a 50 year member, over 50 years too, he's one of the first ones that organized Boy's Demoly. And all three girls belonged to Rainbow, Girls Rainbow, that's all a branch off of the Masonic. [Did you do any other volunteer work?] I was a member of, Women of the Moose too, I was active in that for years. [That's like Lions right?] Mmm-hmmm. [What did you do for them?] I was in the different offices until we retired, and we started traveling, so I just, I still pay my dues. [What did you do in the community?] Ah, that was about it. We....just ah, just, I don't know.
[Did you have anything you wanted to tell me?] Only that we celebrated our silver, and our golden anniversary. And we spend our winters in the south now. We traveled the U.S.A. in our fifth wheeler. Spent 10 days in Mexico City and Cancun. [Do you like traveling?] Yes I do, I miss it. I love traveling. My biggest thrill was when I could fly, before they raised the prices so bad and we could fly by airplane, that was, ohhhh, I love to fly. And the best part, and I'll always remember it, was having our grandchildren with us during the summer vacations. That was the best part. I miss that. [Family is very important to you then.] Yes it was, very important to us. We had a lot of good times. They learned how to drive the tractors, and how to help us with the yard, and swimming, we put up a big pool.
We've done a lot of agate hunting, we did a lot of agate hunting, grandchildren, our children, and everything. And we built our sod house when our children, four children, were home. We built a sod house, did your dad tell you about it? [Nope]. On the farm on the north 40. [What did you do with a sod house?] It finally got plowed under. [Did you live in it?] Well, we could have luncheons. Dad was breaking up the land, to seed it, so with the big chunks of dirt, the long junk, the children and I carried them, Don would help us, and we had a shelter over it and we'd have, ah...our lunches in there. It was big enough we could just sit in it, you couldn't stand up or anything, we'd just crawl in and sit and have lunch, that was our sod house. They had an idea how to build it. And then the biggest I think, and some of the boys, and I think we helped, all of us, we made an Eskimo house here in the back yard. We filled, I can't think of the cans, I think they were cans that dad had at the farm, oil cans, and we'd cut 'em up, he made long square blocks, fill those with water every night and they'd freeze, and we built an igloo, and they would have lunches occasionally, they would eat in there. John and one or two of his friends. They'd eat lunch in there. They even wanted to sleep in there, but that was a no-no (laughs).
[Did you help out on the farm?] Oh yes, some. Mostly I drove the big grain truck. For years I helped with harvest. I learned how to drive the combine. I'd help during noon hour, when your dad, grandpa or your dad, were in eating dinner I'd drive it. It was too big a toy for me. And then, I'd...there was a big diesel, all I lacked was a t.v. But I drove the big diesel doing all the summer fallow, for years. [Did you use your accounting skills? Did you help with the books?] Yeah, we all did, uh-huh. We came back, and....yep. Most of the time during the winter we'd come into town here and lived and that's when I started on everything here in town. Cause, we had to live here in town and send the children to school. And then we'd go back out in the spring.
[Was there anything besides nursing that you wanted to do that you didn't get to do?] Well...I had a lot of experience in taking care of people that were ill, and I often had wished I could have gone on and finished my education. [What kind of experience?] Oh, just around even the neighborhood, or anybody that needed help I offered it. You know, usually it was just bad colds, or if they came home from the hospital and needed help, or, most of the time it was people that had children you know and they'd need help with their little children, and I'd help 'em. [Do you remember anyone in particular you helped?] Well, one maybe I remember, she's gone now, but she had a stroke, and I helped teach her how to talk again and how to walk. Just I liked to do it, and I was free to do it. Oh, and I was President of, forgot to put that in, you're gonna really know my life history and I'm gonna have to have a copy of it. I was president of Homemaker's Club at Andes, Montana. [Where's that?] Ah, straight north of the farm out there, the ranch. [Real close?] Yeah. About 10 miles. [Were all the little communities around Sidney interconnected?] Yeah. Johnny used to ride his three wheeler. Oh, was it Scott, oh Scott, you had your three wheeler there! [Yep]. Yeah, over there at Andes. You used to go over there and ride, I told you to take the old road that your dad used to ride on his scooter and go up to, over the hill there at Andes. Right straight north of there. I'm sure you were over there. Over towards Culbertson, yeah. [Did you know your neighbors well?] I think so. We, in those days everybody knew each other and everybody got together. [What did you get together to do?] Play cards mostly, and I remember the barn dances. [Where were those?] Girard, oh, I guess it wasn't a barn dance, Girard Hall. [That's just up the road, right?] Yeah. You go bye it when you come into town and going out, yeah, Girard Hall. You were there one night and had a lot of fun. [Yep]. Yeah. [What kind of cards did you play?] Oh, they played, in those days, because there was a lot of Norwegians and Swedes, so we played Whist. We got pretty good at Whist. And if they needed an extra, I was always the extra. [So most of your neighbors were from Scandinavia?] Yeah. [Recent immigrants?] They'd been there now, when they first came there were all new, yeah. But then later years, the farm out at our ranch, where we are now, they're mostly...what are they Don? Italian, and uh....Italian and French. And Basque. They're Frenchmen, they're Basque.
[Relatives?] They all went to Sidney High School. By that time, my dad and mom had moved into town. [Sisters? Brothers?] Yeah, I had 5 sisters and 3 brothers. Yeah, it was a big family. Olive lives here in Sidney, Olive Mercer. [All of them live in Sidney??] Pardon? [All of them live in Sidney?] Yeah, Olive lives in Sidney. [Oh, Olive]. Her husband is mayor. [The mayor of Sidney?] Mm-hmmm.... And I have a brother, Fred, Ronny's dad, at Glendive. And the rest all live out of town. [Do you see them often?] Oh, Mary, my sister at Billings. She and her husband flew into Yuma and spent two weeks with us this winter. She's with, ah...is it, what do you call government job, that there were they collect the taxes and all that? [She works for the IRS?] There you go. (laughs). I could think of every initial there was, but not that one. [What's Mary's last name?] Doubis. And the rest I don't know too much about. [Too many to keep track of?] Right, we don't get together like we used to. They're all way out on the west coast or some, I think Washington, most of them are out there. Oh, Ida. You know Ida. [What's Ida's last name?] Ummm...what is her last, Ida, Donlay. And her husband's name is Dan, d-a-n. And they spent Christmas with us this year. They come quite often to our house. [Christmas in Yuma?] Mm-hmmm... They spent Christmas in Yuma with us. As well as Myrna Gail and her two children this year. And your dad came to see us for a week, and Aunt Judy and Tom were there for a week, the next week after your dad left. So everybody missed each other. So we get to see 'em once a year for sure. She lives at Detroit lakes. [Who?] Ida. And we raised her as a little girl, till her mom got married and took her away from us. But we used to have her. We enjoyed her company very much. She's one of the family.
[Did your mom live in the U.S. her whole life?] She, ah, yes, she was born in Virginia. And, um, moved, married, my Grandpa Korf in Cleveland. And they came west like everybody else to get wealthy, instead of that they went broke. [Grandpa Korf?]
Oh, for gosh sake, here comes a great big bouquet of flowers, from Gail, Myrna Gail for Mother's Day. Oh, they're gorgeous. Whew. I'm not used to that. Your dad usually does out at Yuma for, oh, for Christmas. Yeah, and probably he'll be sending some more will be coming tomorrow, he usually always remembers. [He's good at that]. Yep, he sure is. They're every color, Scott, I wish you see it. There's purple, there's red, there's yellow, there's gold, pink! And a big butterfly in the middle. And a big beautiful beautiful basket. Them kids. It's nice to have kids. Especially now. To remember you. Yep.
Well, I was trying to think of something else. Oh, I forget to tell you about Gary. Your dad had a two wheel scooter, and grandpa would tell him when talking, this was several years ago, he couldn't have been more than eight, cause he has spent every summer like you boys did with us. And, ah, Dad kept telling him about, he had to get to water, get to town to water the lawn. So what did the little rascal do, he filled a jug of water and hung it on the handlebars and he took, made him some sandwiches, and Don come in the house and says, "You know where your boy's headed for?" And I said, "No, where's the boy headed for?" "He's going to Sidney to water the lawn." And here he was, on this old two wheeled Scooter, ok, he was going down, so I followed, I got in the car and followed, and I let him go, and we left up on Girard Hill, if you can remember where that is, him and the oil workers, big rigs, they were gonna make another well, and they sat there and waited for that boy and laughed, they laughed so hard to see that little tyke coming down that hill with (laughs) - it's a good thing I took some more water along 'cause he'd drank most of his water. But I never let run on the highway. We loaded it on the pickup and brought it in. And we watered it on the yard, and then went back again. But he rode that two, he stuck with it, he couldn't hardly walk afterwards (laughs). And you brother Scott, er Andrew too, he rode that, ah, motor scooter wasn't it? It was a 2-wheeler. Well Andy was alone, and he came to Fairview and he called and he said, "Grandpa can you come and get me, I can't stand up." [He was probably on the little green Vespa]. Yeah. And John said, I never told him what would happen to him if he did, so John must have know...riding. Oh, I know, Johnny one time from the farm, and he took his two wheel scooter, an older one, and he went clear to Savage, you know up at Brown. And he rode it all the way up there, and he, that had to happen to him, he couldn't stand up, and he said, "I didn't tell Andy." (laughs). Yeah. And didn't you ride your bike to the farm, or into town here. [That was Andy]. And what about you? Sure, you rode your three wheeler. [I didn't ride it all the way out there]. Yeah, you rode it all over the country. You used to [go to] Violet's, way out, about 9 miles west of us, yeah, uh-huh.
[What do you know about your real dad?] Not much, I never met him. [What was his first name?] Will [William?] Yeah. Same as my step dad, that's corny. Same, Bill they were both know. Many later years, after everybody was through high school and married, I met my stepbrothers then. They live at Aberdeen, SD. [He married again?] Yeah, he got married and he had 7 children. And there's one brother in RI. And a sister in Phoenix. And, another one in Aberdeen, Mildred lives in Aberdeen too. [Do you know last names?] No, I don't know their married names. Joe and, Joe passed away. [Was he the one that lived in Aberdeen?] Yeah. He had cancer, you remember. He and Girt used to come to your house. And Lloyd, he still lives there, he and his wife. He has the electric store there in Aberdeen. [Oh, I think I know where that's at.] Yeah. Sure you do. And Margaret Johnson, she lives there too. Their last name is Johnson. Margaret Johnson. And if I remember right she's an ex-school teacher. And she taught school for years. [Was William McBurney from here?] He was originally from Ireland, when Grandpa and Grandma McBurney came over he was a baby, from Ireland. [Do you know Grandpa and Grandma McBurney's names?] William. William Joseph. McBurney. I did know the name of the town, but I can't think of it now.
[Starts talking about some research she did of her own regarding relatives]. Yeah, I've got, I've got a big, I should get it copied off you and send it to you of Don, of Grandpa McVay, Great Grandpa. And I've got that all written up when he grew up as a boy in Iowa. And your Great Great Grandpa. And I should get that all off...I've got it written. Oh, I made one for Gary. And they framed it and put it on the wall at school. On the Great Great, Gary's third great grandpa. And they put it on the wall for the civil war. And your grandpa and that, way down. And they thought that was history. It made Gary feel good.
[Starts talking about some pages she made of notes to talk to me to remind her of things she wanted to say]. For fashion when I was about ten, for fashion, our biggest fashion, that was when girls started wearing slacks, or jeans. And mom was always making me put on jeans because I rode horseback, a lot. With our striped socks, in the 30's. Our striped socks. And they were the ugliest thing you ever knew of. And girls had to wear pantaloons then, and they always hung below your dress. But they were the latest style, Scott!
[You used to ride horses a lot?] Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about that, didn't I, about me and my pony, where did I put that? [You said you used to ride a Sheltie to school all the time]. Yeah, and then later years my dad gave me a pony I called Midget. Beautiful little sorrel I called midget. And we could cut and rope with the best of them on the range. Our cattle just run out in open range, and we had to cut 'em in, bring 'em in. [You helped bring the cattle in?] Mmm-hmmm. [Did you do much work on the ranch?] Quite a bit. Cultivated corn. Ask Uncle Fred. He rode the horse, and I stood on the back of those, you know, old fashioned cultivators. On the seat on it. A garden tractor. And the horse pulled it. And then I'd stand on the back end and Fred would ride the horse and steer down the corn rows. And he and I had to cultivate the corn that way. That was way back in the '30's. And we had fun. Then we'd tie the horse up and play hide-and-seek. That was a no-no, but we never smashed any corn down (laughs).
Interview with Madeline McVay (Maiden Name: McBurney).
13 May 1995, by Scott D. McVay (Madeline is my paternal grandmother).
[When were you born?] July 14, 1915 in Plentywood Montana...straight north of us on Highway 16, just before you go into Canada.
[What are your parents names?] William and Mary Haase, er, yeah Haase, I went by Haase all the time...My real name was McBurney. I never knew my dad, he left us when I was a baby. I always knew Haase as my dad. You know Lonny.
[What do you remember about school?] Well, when I was, my first year in school I was six years old and my dad gave me a black and white Shetland and I rode him 3 miles to school; winter and summer. [You rode a horse to school?] Uh-huh. I rode a little black and white Shetland. [What was his name?] That, I don't, I think I called him Sheldie. I think I called him Sheldie. And he would buck me off. He'd take me to the top of the hill and buck me off. And then dad, when I'd get out at 4 o'clock, there was my horse in the corral waiting for me. And he'd bring me home real good, and he did that for, oh, maybe the first year of my school, or, half of the year. Then he got over it and he would take me o.k.
[What did you study at school?] Oh, every subject that you can think of. We had music, pledge allegiance, arithmetic, history, geography, algebra, mmmm....reading, spelling. I was good in spelling, I won, competed, when I was 10 years old for the spelling bee, I competed with 26 schools and won. [Was spelling your favorite subject then?] That and ah, arithmetic I guess, ah, Algebra, whatever you want to call it, those were my two favorites.
[What did you think you were going to do when you got older?] I wanted to be a nurse. [Why didn't you become a nurse?] Didn't have any money to back me (laughs). In those days we didn't know what money was. If you saw a penny now and then you were lucky. [How well off were your parents compared to the other people in town?] We were comfortable. We had a radio and we had a car, and most of them didn't have that at that time in this community. Model T-Ford. (what color) Black. The first thing I can remember, I wasn't very old, was first we had a buggy and the most beautiful team, black team, of horses to go with it. That's the first, and I can't remember them too much. And then when Dad got the model-t I went with him that day to get it and when he was coming home he run into a telephone pole and he said, "Don't tell your mom, don't you dare tell your mom." I never did. He was learning how to drive...that was the first thing I learned to drive, and I couldn't have been very old.
[What did you parents do for a living?] Ranched, wheat and cattle. At Girard, MT. Way down here close to Sidney. Mom and I moved down there later (to Girard) when she married my stepdad. [how old were you when you moved?] About a year old. [How big was the ranch?] Oh, gee I don't know, when they homesteaded it was the size of a homestead, how many acres would that be? Don isn't here or I'd ask him. [I think that's like 160 maybe, or did you get 640) Probably 640, it was pretty good size.
[Stories when little]. Oh, I don't know if they'd be interesting. But, I'll never forget, a neighbor boy and I, the same age, and it was snowing hard we didn't know how dangerous it was, and we'd come home from school. When it was too bad they always come and got us with a sleigh and horses. So this night then, he walked halfway from his house to mine, we were about a half a mile apart, and he walked, instead of coming on home, we got the bright idea to follow the creek. It was starting to storm pretty hard so we crawled in a snowbank to get kinda warm and outta the wind, on the creek bank. Well, here was my dad out on the saddlehorse and his dad with the team and sleigh out looking for us. And we heard the horses or something, we heard some noise anyhow and we come out. And I won't never forget it because we both got spanked for not going home. I was about eight years old. Seven or eight. It was a lotta fun trackin rabbit tracks, and then the storm came up.
[In school, did they teach girls different things then they taught boys?] Ah, I think it was just an all around, everybody was in the same class. Everybody. There were about 24 of us all together. And the only thing I can remember back then was the big Christmas programs at Christmas time and everybody come....always in the play. Uh-huh, I was always one of the, cause I could memorize, I don't know why, but they just put me in, I could memorize. So...that was, I always remember that. Oh, when we had, in the spring they had the lay dance, a great big wire circle with wreaths on it, and we'd dance to that music and dance, and, everybody would come see that again. They did a lot of things in the schools then that they don't do now. One thing I can remember, when we'd come to town, it'd take all day and half the night, but we always had those big rocks, then they'd heat em in the oven all night and ready for the next day to keep our feet warm and those rocks would stay warm for a good 24 hours. And that's what they'd heat the sled with that we went to town in the wintertime and that was a big treat for us. And that was to Fairview, MT, that's beside Sidney here, Fairview. We'd come in there and they had a big pop factory. And dad would stop off there and we'd have free pop, and then we'd go to the cheese factory, and we'd get free cheese. And that was a big treat to me. And then they'd buy bananas. Those great big, they were about 6 or 8 feet long, and they'd hang them in the hallway at home, where they wouldn't freeze and they'd stay. I don't know if you've ever seen that or not, those big bunches of bananas right off the tree? [No, I've just seen the little bunches at the store]. Yeah, that's all you see now, but we used to get them a good 4 feet long, at least I think, as I remember (laughs)--it was a lot of bananas.
[Do you remember any effects of the depression-did it have effects on the town?] Yes it did. We always made it because we lived on the farm and there was Artesian water and we could water our garden. We had about the nicest garden of anybody. But there never was wheat to sell, or maybe we could get enough to trade for a sack of flour for winter. No, the depression hurt, and had to get rid of all the cattle because there wasn't food to feed them...back in the '30's.
[When did you first meet grandpa?] When did I meet grandpa? In '35, 1935. He was just home from college. [Did you go to school with him?] Well, he said he knew me in high school, but I didn't....I was a blue-eyed platinum blonde. I had hair, long curly hair, mother always kept it that way from the time I was a little girl till I grew up, through high school, I had long blonde hair, white hair. [Where'd you go to high school at?]. Sidney. I come in and worked for my room and board, my folks never came in. I came in and worked for my room board. [You moved there from where the ranch was?] Uh huh. [Why did you choose to go there?] The closest one. And, oh, I think that's all I can...it was just nice to be here, and I found that place, that home I could work for. [What kind of work did you do?] Just house, everything, housework, and got three children off to school too, besides myself. [What family did you work for?] Pardon? [What was their name?] Bill Dorrs. [How old were you when you moved there?] About 13. I never went back home, nuh-uh. I never was home again. Because I kept working. I had house work and then I worked for the Eagle Cafe waiting tables. [Isn't there still an Eagle Cafe in Sidney?] It's still there, m-hmmm. And I'll tell you something, your mom worked there when she was in high school (laughs). [When did you start work at the Eagle Cafe, were you working for the Dorrs at the same time?] Bout my second year I was in Sidney I started working part time, I worked for the manager of the restaurant, and then I helped at the restaurant occasionally, and that's where I got my training.
[Grandpa had gone away to college?] Yea, he'd gone after he'd graduated from high school. He'd majored in chemistry. [Had you had any plans to go to college?] Yes I did. I planned on going to Mankato, MN. But I didn't get there. I had a teacher when I was about the 8th grade and she'd graduated from there and it sounded good. So that's where I was gonna go. [Where you going to go there to be a nurse?] I went, mm-hmmm, but I went instead after Don and I were married, grandpa and I were married. We went to Chico State, Don went on to get a degree, a higher degree, so I went and I majored in, ahh....bookkeeping and ah, accounting, at Chico State California. One year, one year of college in. [Did you move out to Chico then?] We stayed one winter because we were looking for work. I was lucky, I found work as a hostess for the college. But Don couldn't get work out there, so we came back and started farming. [What year did you go to Chico?] Let's see, we were married in '36, so '37 then. [So you were married a year after he came back?] Uh-huh.
[Was grandpa in World War II?] No...he was in the national guard. [He didn't have to leave you behind?] No. Uh-uh. That was when, during World War II, everything we made we put into bonds to help out and we were kinda hard pinched at home, but we made it. We thought they needed the money, so we put everything into bonds. Later years it helped us out, cause that money built up. And we could do things with it. I think the first thing we did was buy a new car. [When did you get your first car?] The first one we had was, ah, a Dodge Rumbleseat, back in '36. And then the next one was, ah, our first new one I think was.... What was our first new Dodge Don? Our brand new one that we bought? It was that Dodge with the tail fins, wasn't it? [mumbling off tape] Pardon? A '49. [Your first car lasted 13 years?] No. Oh, Don said a '51 Plymouth was the first one that we owned, with tail fins, and '49 didn't have...no we traded about every 2 years or 4 years because Dad was on the road a lot. [What was he doing on the road?] He was a chemist out of Denver for 3 or 4 states, for Wyoming, Montana, North and South Dakota. [Were you at home by yourself a lot?] Yes I was. Uh-huh. [What did you do with your time?] I milked the cows. We had a cow or two. I lived on the ranch, and I had two little girls. And...Judy and Joanne. And..cause Don was just working at Holly Sugar as a chemist at that time, just during the winter when the campaign was on. And...so he was out on that for Rogers Chemical out of Denver. And then he went to everyday, yearround, at Holly Sugar. And when he retired after 45 years he was superintendent of the mill. They put him from the lab out to the mill.
[What did you do for fun on the farm?] Oh, we did lots. Mostly picnics, take long drives. We'd save up the gas money for gas and take long drives and see how the other farmers were doing. And visit the different cities and my uncle, I had an uncle and aunt in Canada, near Regina, and we'd go up to see them. We did a lot of picnics with Fred and Lorraine Haase and their kids. And we did, had a lot of picnics together. The biggest picnic I can remember, we took the big grain truck, and all the dinner was in it, and all the kids, and I rode back there with the kids. And Don was driving, and somebody, I can't remember, but all my relatives. And, Brown, Lawrence Brown from Savage and their family. And we all went to Medora, South Dakota, and had a big picnic for the fourth of July. It was great back then, we had a lot of picnics and they always seemed to congregate at our ranch. At Don's and my's ranch. We had a lot of trees out there if you remember. And we had a lot of picnics out there. [So the neighbors all came for picnics too, or just your relatives?] Everybody, the whole community would come.
[Did you have a house in town then? When did you get the house?] The house in town? When they started school, we had five miles to school, out at the ranch. So when Joanne and Judy were old enough to start school we bought this house, 50, what is it now, no 58 years ago. 58 years ago we bought this house in Sidney. [Where were you living at the farm?] We had a house out at the farm? [The little one?] It was pretty good sized. And it's funny, the neighbors, we moved his mom's house, ahh...grandma's house down there, it was empty. And then we added on Grandpa Norgard's, we always called him Grandpa Norgard from ND. And we moved that on to the place and added on. So we had a pretty good sized home. We had running water, Don hooked up a pump that you pumped water. And we had a sink in the kitchen. We were quite modernized. And we had a outdoor toilet. There's another name for them, but, outhouse. There you go, that sounds better. And Don, then, to start with, all we had was kerosene or gas, but later, when the electricity come in, the children were still little then, and Don wired it for electricity and we had heat out there, so it wasn't too bad. Till we got the indoor plumbing.
[What years were your children born?] Yeah, Joanne was, Joanne and Judy, one was in February '39, and Judy was December '39. And then five years later, I think five years later, John came along. I never can remember John and Gail. [John was born in November]. In November, and Gail was born in January, 21st, and John was 29th of November. It was during the beginning of Word War II. Don? Don. What year was Johnny born? '39? '45? Was it 44 and 45? It was the first world, second world, second war. We were in San Francisco and came home. [What were you doing in San Francisco?] We were just visiting and touring. And John was born that November. [Were you on vacation?] Yes, uh-huh. [Did you vacation often?] Just about once, oh, whenever we could get the money I had to go (laughs). [So, did you get to see lots of the U.S.?] We did, we traveled, Don's folks lived at Chico, CA, and it seems like Johnny was born, or Gail, in '45. '44 and '45? [If he was born in November '44, it would have been hard to have Gail in January '45]. No, we'd have to put her a year ahead. Ah...I didn't look that up. [I can ask John when he was born]. It's in the, it's in the big Bible in there. Don's gonna look right away quick. [Was it important to send your kids to school]. Yeah, I didn't, we just went out to the form after school was out every year after that.
[What did you do while your kids were in school? Did you take care of them? Did you have a job still?] No, I didn't have a job, but I was, um...let's see, wait'll I find my note on that [she had written two pages in preparation of the phone interview]. I was, ah, (pause). I was a Girl Scout leader for 16 years in Sidney. And, I was active in the band and PTA. And, helping four children get a good education, and music was our biggest hobby. They knew how to play the, all four knew how to play the piano. And all four were in the band. I was a Demoly Mother for four years. [A Demoly Mother? How do you spell that?] Uh-huh, D-e-m-o-l-y. I just had it yesterday and I laid it right there on the table, Don, underneath that other table in the corner, by the fireplace [speaking to husband regarding the Bible she's looking for]. [What's a Demoly Mother?] It's a lodge for boys, and John was very active in Demoly. [What did they do?] Oh, Don, what did they do in Demoly? Can you explain it? Pardon? It's sponsored by the Masonic Lodge, and they learned, oh, how to treat a girl nice, their manners, and how to treat a girl nice, and they would have parties, and ask girls, and everybody would come dressed up, you had to be formal. They did a lot of good for the community if somebody elderly needed help, they were always there to help.
[What did you do with the Girl Scouts?] With the Girl Scouts? I took 'em through, clear through to their nurses, that was the last one, it was the top in Girl Scouts, all the farther they could go, and I shoulda kept on that last year that they needed the nurses training 'cause I had one year nurses training in high school, and I knew, um, oh what did, Scott, what do you call, um, everybody takes it every year, that training, first aid, there you go. And I could have, I found out afterwards, that I could have graduated them all the way, but I thought it had to be a registered nurse. But they went all the way to that, to getting their nurses first aid. [So you taught girl scouts job skills?] It could be, that, yeah, we did a lot of camping, we made a lot of, mostly we entertained our, their parents, to dinners and they learned how to cook, and....(stops). [What did you do for the PTA?] I was secretary for several years. I don't think, I can't remember if I made President or not, but I know I was secretary. Oh, and I was, an Eastern Star. [What's an Eastern Star?] That's a branch of Masonic Lodge. Don, your grandpa, is a 50 year, over a 50 year, member now, and he's a 50 year member, over 50 years too, he's one of the first ones that organized Boy's Demoly. And all three girls belonged to Rainbow, Girls Rainbow, that's all a branch off of the Masonic. [Did you do any other volunteer work?] I was a member of, Women of the Moose too, I was active in that for years. [That's like Lions right?] Mmm-hmmm. [What did you do for them?] I was in the different offices until we retired, and we started traveling, so I just, I still pay my dues. [What did you do in the community?] Ah, that was about it. We....just ah, just, I don't know.
[Did you have anything you wanted to tell me?] Only that we celebrated our silver, and our golden anniversary. And we spend our winters in the south now. We traveled the U.S.A. in our fifth wheeler. Spent 10 days in Mexico City and Cancun. [Do you like traveling?] Yes I do, I miss it. I love traveling. My biggest thrill was when I could fly, before they raised the prices so bad and we could fly by airplane, that was, ohhhh, I love to fly. And the best part, and I'll always remember it, was having our grandchildren with us during the summer vacations. That was the best part. I miss that. [Family is very important to you then.] Yes it was, very important to us. We had a lot of good times. They learned how to drive the tractors, and how to help us with the yard, and swimming, we put up a big pool.
We've done a lot of agate hunting, we did a lot of agate hunting, grandchildren, our children, and everything. And we built our sod house when our children, four children, were home. We built a sod house, did your dad tell you about it? [Nope]. On the farm on the north 40. [What did you do with a sod house?] It finally got plowed under. [Did you live in it?] Well, we could have luncheons. Dad was breaking up the land, to seed it, so with the big chunks of dirt, the long junk, the children and I carried them, Don would help us, and we had a shelter over it and we'd have, ah...our lunches in there. It was big enough we could just sit in it, you couldn't stand up or anything, we'd just crawl in and sit and have lunch, that was our sod house. They had an idea how to build it. And then the biggest I think, and some of the boys, and I think we helped, all of us, we made an Eskimo house here in the back yard. We filled, I can't think of the cans, I think they were cans that dad had at the farm, oil cans, and we'd cut 'em up, he made long square blocks, fill those with water every night and they'd freeze, and we built an igloo, and they would have lunches occasionally, they would eat in there. John and one or two of his friends. They'd eat lunch in there. They even wanted to sleep in there, but that was a no-no (laughs).
[Did you help out on the farm?] Oh yes, some. Mostly I drove the big grain truck. For years I helped with harvest. I learned how to drive the combine. I'd help during noon hour, when your dad, grandpa or your dad, were in eating dinner I'd drive it. It was too big a toy for me. And then, I'd...there was a big diesel, all I lacked was a t.v. But I drove the big diesel doing all the summer fallow, for years. [Did you use your accounting skills? Did you help with the books?] Yeah, we all did, uh-huh. We came back, and....yep. Most of the time during the winter we'd come into town here and lived and that's when I started on everything here in town. Cause, we had to live here in town and send the children to school. And then we'd go back out in the spring.
[Was there anything besides nursing that you wanted to do that you didn't get to do?] Well...I had a lot of experience in taking care of people that were ill, and I often had wished I could have gone on and finished my education. [What kind of experience?] Oh, just around even the neighborhood, or anybody that needed help I offered it. You know, usually it was just bad colds, or if they came home from the hospital and needed help, or, most of the time it was people that had children you know and they'd need help with their little children, and I'd help 'em. [Do you remember anyone in particular you helped?] Well, one maybe I remember, she's gone now, but she had a stroke, and I helped teach her how to talk again and how to walk. Just I liked to do it, and I was free to do it. Oh, and I was President of, forgot to put that in, you're gonna really know my life history and I'm gonna have to have a copy of it. I was president of Homemaker's Club at Andes, Montana. [Where's that?] Ah, straight north of the farm out there, the ranch. [Real close?] Yeah. About 10 miles. [Were all the little communities around Sidney interconnected?] Yeah. Johnny used to ride his three wheeler. Oh, was it Scott, oh Scott, you had your three wheeler there! [Yep]. Yeah, over there at Andes. You used to go over there and ride, I told you to take the old road that your dad used to ride on his scooter and go up to, over the hill there at Andes. Right straight north of there. I'm sure you were over there. Over towards Culbertson, yeah. [Did you know your neighbors well?] I think so. We, in those days everybody knew each other and everybody got together. [What did you get together to do?] Play cards mostly, and I remember the barn dances. [Where were those?] Girard, oh, I guess it wasn't a barn dance, Girard Hall. [That's just up the road, right?] Yeah. You go bye it when you come into town and going out, yeah, Girard Hall. You were there one night and had a lot of fun. [Yep]. Yeah. [What kind of cards did you play?] Oh, they played, in those days, because there was a lot of Norwegians and Swedes, so we played Whist. We got pretty good at Whist. And if they needed an extra, I was always the extra. [So most of your neighbors were from Scandinavia?] Yeah. [Recent immigrants?] They'd been there now, when they first came there were all new, yeah. But then later years, the farm out at our ranch, where we are now, they're mostly...what are they Don? Italian, and uh....Italian and French. And Basque. They're Frenchmen, they're Basque.
[Relatives?] They all went to Sidney High School. By that time, my dad and mom had moved into town. [Sisters? Brothers?] Yeah, I had 5 sisters and 3 brothers. Yeah, it was a big family. Olive lives here in Sidney, Olive Mercer. [All of them live in Sidney??] Pardon? [All of them live in Sidney?] Yeah, Olive lives in Sidney. [Oh, Olive]. Her husband is mayor. [The mayor of Sidney?] Mm-hmmm.... And I have a brother, Fred, Ronny's dad, at Glendive. And the rest all live out of town. [Do you see them often?] Oh, Mary, my sister at Billings. She and her husband flew into Yuma and spent two weeks with us this winter. She's with, ah...is it, what do you call government job, that there were they collect the taxes and all that? [She works for the IRS?] There you go. (laughs). I could think of every initial there was, but not that one. [What's Mary's last name?] Doubis. And the rest I don't know too much about. [Too many to keep track of?] Right, we don't get together like we used to. They're all way out on the west coast or some, I think Washington, most of them are out there. Oh, Ida. You know Ida. [What's Ida's last name?] Ummm...what is her last, Ida, Donlay. And her husband's name is Dan, d-a-n. And they spent Christmas with us this year. They come quite often to our house. [Christmas in Yuma?] Mm-hmmm... They spent Christmas in Yuma with us. As well as Myrna Gail and her two children this year. And your dad came to see us for a week, and Aunt Judy and Tom were there for a week, the next week after your dad left. So everybody missed each other. So we get to see 'em once a year for sure. She lives at Detroit lakes. [Who?] Ida. And we raised her as a little girl, till her mom got married and took her away from us. But we used to have her. We enjoyed her company very much. She's one of the family.
[Did your mom live in the U.S. her whole life?] She, ah, yes, she was born in Virginia. And, um, moved, married, my Grandpa Korf in Cleveland. And they came west like everybody else to get wealthy, instead of that they went broke. [Grandpa Korf?]
Oh, for gosh sake, here comes a great big bouquet of flowers, from Gail, Myrna Gail for Mother's Day. Oh, they're gorgeous. Whew. I'm not used to that. Your dad usually does out at Yuma for, oh, for Christmas. Yeah, and probably he'll be sending some more will be coming tomorrow, he usually always remembers. [He's good at that]. Yep, he sure is. They're every color, Scott, I wish you see it. There's purple, there's red, there's yellow, there's gold, pink! And a big butterfly in the middle. And a big beautiful beautiful basket. Them kids. It's nice to have kids. Especially now. To remember you. Yep.
Well, I was trying to think of something else. Oh, I forget to tell you about Gary. Your dad had a two wheel scooter, and grandpa would tell him when talking, this was several years ago, he couldn't have been more than eight, cause he has spent every summer like you boys did with us. And, ah, Dad kept telling him about, he had to get to water, get to town to water the lawn. So what did the little rascal do, he filled a jug of water and hung it on the handlebars and he took, made him some sandwiches, and Don come in the house and says, "You know where your boy's headed for?" And I said, "No, where's the boy headed for?" "He's going to Sidney to water the lawn." And here he was, on this old two wheeled Scooter, ok, he was going down, so I followed, I got in the car and followed, and I let him go, and we left up on Girard Hill, if you can remember where that is, him and the oil workers, big rigs, they were gonna make another well, and they sat there and waited for that boy and laughed, they laughed so hard to see that little tyke coming down that hill with (laughs) - it's a good thing I took some more water along 'cause he'd drank most of his water. But I never let run on the highway. We loaded it on the pickup and brought it in. And we watered it on the yard, and then went back again. But he rode that two, he stuck with it, he couldn't hardly walk afterwards (laughs). And you brother Scott, er Andrew too, he rode that, ah, motor scooter wasn't it? It was a 2-wheeler. Well Andy was alone, and he came to Fairview and he called and he said, "Grandpa can you come and get me, I can't stand up." [He was probably on the little green Vespa]. Yeah. And John said, I never told him what would happen to him if he did, so John must have know...riding. Oh, I know, Johnny one time from the farm, and he took his two wheel scooter, an older one, and he went clear to Savage, you know up at Brown. And he rode it all the way up there, and he, that had to happen to him, he couldn't stand up, and he said, "I didn't tell Andy." (laughs). Yeah. And didn't you ride your bike to the farm, or into town here. [That was Andy]. And what about you? Sure, you rode your three wheeler. [I didn't ride it all the way out there]. Yeah, you rode it all over the country. You used to [go to] Violet's, way out, about 9 miles west of us, yeah, uh-huh.
[What do you know about your real dad?] Not much, I never met him. [What was his first name?] Will [William?] Yeah. Same as my step dad, that's corny. Same, Bill they were both know. Many later years, after everybody was through high school and married, I met my stepbrothers then. They live at Aberdeen, SD. [He married again?] Yeah, he got married and he had 7 children. And there's one brother in RI. And a sister in Phoenix. And, another one in Aberdeen, Mildred lives in Aberdeen too. [Do you know last names?] No, I don't know their married names. Joe and, Joe passed away. [Was he the one that lived in Aberdeen?] Yeah. He had cancer, you remember. He and Girt used to come to your house. And Lloyd, he still lives there, he and his wife. He has the electric store there in Aberdeen. [Oh, I think I know where that's at.] Yeah. Sure you do. And Margaret Johnson, she lives there too. Their last name is Johnson. Margaret Johnson. And if I remember right she's an ex-school teacher. And she taught school for years. [Was William McBurney from here?] He was originally from Ireland, when Grandpa and Grandma McBurney came over he was a baby, from Ireland. [Do you know Grandpa and Grandma McBurney's names?] William. William Joseph. McBurney. I did know the name of the town, but I can't think of it now.
[Starts talking about some research she did of her own regarding relatives]. Yeah, I've got, I've got a big, I should get it copied off you and send it to you of Don, of Grandpa McVay, Great Grandpa. And I've got that all written up when he grew up as a boy in Iowa. And your Great Great Grandpa. And I should get that all off...I've got it written. Oh, I made one for Gary. And they framed it and put it on the wall at school. On the Great Great, Gary's third great grandpa. And they put it on the wall for the civil war. And your grandpa and that, way down. And they thought that was history. It made Gary feel good.
[Starts talking about some pages she made of notes to talk to me to remind her of things she wanted to say]. For fashion when I was about ten, for fashion, our biggest fashion, that was when girls started wearing slacks, or jeans. And mom was always making me put on jeans because I rode horseback, a lot. With our striped socks, in the 30's. Our striped socks. And they were the ugliest thing you ever knew of. And girls had to wear pantaloons then, and they always hung below your dress. But they were the latest style, Scott!
[You used to ride horses a lot?] Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about that, didn't I, about me and my pony, where did I put that? [You said you used to ride a Sheltie to school all the time]. Yeah, and then later years my dad gave me a pony I called Midget. Beautiful little sorrel I called midget. And we could cut and rope with the best of them on the range. Our cattle just run out in open range, and we had to cut 'em in, bring 'em in. [You helped bring the cattle in?] Mmm-hmmm. [Did you do much work on the ranch?] Quite a bit. Cultivated corn. Ask Uncle Fred. He rode the horse, and I stood on the back of those, you know, old fashioned cultivators. On the seat on it. A garden tractor. And the horse pulled it. And then I'd stand on the back end and Fred would ride the horse and steer down the corn rows. And he and I had to cultivate the corn that way. That was way back in the '30's. And we had fun. Then we'd tie the horse up and play hide-and-seek. That was a no-no, but we never smashed any corn down (laughs).
Great Aunt Loraine
My great aunt Lorraine died recently - she'd been dealing with Alzheimer's for a long time. When I was a kid, Fred (my great uncle) and Lorraine were two of the people I remember visiting most often, and two of the relatives I actually always looked forward to visiting (which is certainly not always the case with my relatives - I apologize if you're one of my relatives reading this and feel that statement applies to you, but you probably already suspected it), and though I hadn't seen Loraine in an exceptionally long time, I'll still miss her.
Loraine Georgie Alegra (Hollom) Haase
GLENDIVE - Loraine Georgie Alegra (Hollom) Haase, age 85, of Glendive, passed away on Tuesday, May 17, 2005, in the Glendive Medical Center.
A prayer service will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, May 20, in the Chapel of the Silvernale-Silha Funeral Home in Glendive. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 21, at the United Methodist Church in Glendive, with Pastor T.C. Chatman officiating. Interment will be in the Dawson Memorial Cemetery in Glendive. Silvernale-Silha Funeral Home of Glendive is entrusted with arrangements.Loraine was born on Aug. 15, 1919 in Elmdale, the daughter of Andrew C. and Alvilda Otelja (Hellicksen) Hollom. She attended Goodwin Elementary School, Brockton High School for two years, Richey High School for one year and graduated from Brockton High School with the class of 1937. Loraine played six girl basketball during high school.
Loraine worked as a stenographer in Sidney until moving to Seattle during World War II, where she was employed by Boeing and later Alpine Dairy. She later returned to Sidney, where she worked as a secretary for Babe Turner Agency. Loraine was known as "Tootsie" when she met Fred Haase and they were united in marriage on Jan. 15, 1947, at the Methodist Church in Sidney. They lived north of Sidney and Loraine taught summer school at Goodwin School until she and her husband moved to Billings. They then moved to Glendive in 1952, where they built their own home and have resided here since.Loraine was a leader of the High Hopes 4-H Club for 20 years. She was a Sunday School teacher, was active in the United Methodist Church and Community Bible Study Group. Loraine loved to sew for her family and friends, enjoyed cooking, baking and decorating wedding cakes and she made great mints. Loraine always like to sign "homemaker" on her tax return.Loraine was preceded in death by her parents and her siblings, Myrtle Edeburn, Evelyn Hollom, Oral A. Hollom, Darvin Hollom and Derema Hollom.
Survivors include her husband, Fred, of Glendive; her sons, Gary Haase and his wife Lynn and their children, Nicholas Haase and Jaclyn Haase of Sherwood, Ore.; Ron Haase and his wife Tammy and their children, Katie Haase and Julia Haase of Sidney; John Haase and his wife Peggy and their children, Brad Haase and Mike Haase of Glendive; her daughter, Susan Atwell and her children, Dawn Kingstad and her husband Clint, Derek Atwell and Justin Atwell of Glendive; her sister, Elsa Banyai of Fairview.Remembrances and condolences may be shared with the family at: www.silvernale-silhafuneralhome.com.
Published in the Billings Gazette on 5/20/2005.
Loraine Georgie Alegra (Hollom) Haase
GLENDIVE - Loraine Georgie Alegra (Hollom) Haase, age 85, of Glendive, passed away on Tuesday, May 17, 2005, in the Glendive Medical Center.
A prayer service will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, May 20, in the Chapel of the Silvernale-Silha Funeral Home in Glendive. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 21, at the United Methodist Church in Glendive, with Pastor T.C. Chatman officiating. Interment will be in the Dawson Memorial Cemetery in Glendive. Silvernale-Silha Funeral Home of Glendive is entrusted with arrangements.Loraine was born on Aug. 15, 1919 in Elmdale, the daughter of Andrew C. and Alvilda Otelja (Hellicksen) Hollom. She attended Goodwin Elementary School, Brockton High School for two years, Richey High School for one year and graduated from Brockton High School with the class of 1937. Loraine played six girl basketball during high school.
Loraine worked as a stenographer in Sidney until moving to Seattle during World War II, where she was employed by Boeing and later Alpine Dairy. She later returned to Sidney, where she worked as a secretary for Babe Turner Agency. Loraine was known as "Tootsie" when she met Fred Haase and they were united in marriage on Jan. 15, 1947, at the Methodist Church in Sidney. They lived north of Sidney and Loraine taught summer school at Goodwin School until she and her husband moved to Billings. They then moved to Glendive in 1952, where they built their own home and have resided here since.Loraine was a leader of the High Hopes 4-H Club for 20 years. She was a Sunday School teacher, was active in the United Methodist Church and Community Bible Study Group. Loraine loved to sew for her family and friends, enjoyed cooking, baking and decorating wedding cakes and she made great mints. Loraine always like to sign "homemaker" on her tax return.Loraine was preceded in death by her parents and her siblings, Myrtle Edeburn, Evelyn Hollom, Oral A. Hollom, Darvin Hollom and Derema Hollom.
Survivors include her husband, Fred, of Glendive; her sons, Gary Haase and his wife Lynn and their children, Nicholas Haase and Jaclyn Haase of Sherwood, Ore.; Ron Haase and his wife Tammy and their children, Katie Haase and Julia Haase of Sidney; John Haase and his wife Peggy and their children, Brad Haase and Mike Haase of Glendive; her daughter, Susan Atwell and her children, Dawn Kingstad and her husband Clint, Derek Atwell and Justin Atwell of Glendive; her sister, Elsa Banyai of Fairview.Remembrances and condolences may be shared with the family at: www.silvernale-silhafuneralhome.com.
Published in the Billings Gazette on 5/20/2005.
Weekend Recap - Food/etc.
Did I mention we also went furniture shopping for Pooteewheet's soon-to-be practice, went bike browsing, chased down the cat who escaped because of the aforementioned cardboard cutting getting in the way of the garage door sensors, painted the basement wall, went to get Erwood at my aunt-in-law's I'm married party and fetched the leaf blower from the duplex. A full weekend.
Anyway - food. Saturday night was our big going-out without Erwood night and we decided to hit a sushi place. I've had it a few times, but Pooteewheet never has, except the sushi she made in community education that smelled so fishy I could tell she was bringing it in the door upstairs. I canvassed coworkers, and decided on The Hairy Swede's favorite sushi digs, Midori's Floating World Cafe on Lake and 30th. We invited my friend Kyle because I know he likes sushi and also likes anything new and, of course, the more the merrier (for most things). We consumed:
Anyway - food. Saturday night was our big going-out without Erwood night and we decided to hit a sushi place. I've had it a few times, but Pooteewheet never has, except the sushi she made in community education that smelled so fishy I could tell she was bringing it in the door upstairs. I canvassed coworkers, and decided on The Hairy Swede's favorite sushi digs, Midori's Floating World Cafe on Lake and 30th. We invited my friend Kyle because I know he likes sushi and also likes anything new and, of course, the more the merrier (for most things). We consumed:
- Two orders of the Sushi Dinner / Jo (chef's choice - 10 pieces nigiri sushi, 8 pieces California roll, 6 pieces tuna roll)
- A #9 roll
- An order of white tuna
We also had all the pre-meal food (soup, salad, bowl o' rice) and would have had fish eggs if they hadn't been out. In the end, the only thing left standing was the two pieces of egg-topped sushi (which neither Kyle nor I like) and like one piece of California roll. We have to give Kyle credit for much of it as I filled up pretty fast because I ate all my rice and Pooteewheet was having issues with the texture of raw fish after a few pieces.
A review? Compared to Sushi Tango, where I went last time, I have to say I preferred Sushi Tango, and I think it's because their sushi is actually less authentic - that is to say, the pieces were smaller (Midori's has HUGE pieces of fish - I actually had to cut a piece of sushi in half to eat it, and that's a no-no), the octopus was "trimmed" (Midori's does it right, you can see the crunchy tentacles - that's part of the texture and experience, but I prefer my octopus from the center), the turnover on the sushi seemed to be quite a bit higher (Sushi Tango is a pretty big place, Midori's is half a dozen tables and six slots at the bar), which always makes me happier because I know the fish has to stay perfectly fresh, so it's probably coming out of a cooler (and I like my sushi a little crisp), and the beer selection is better (Midori's is pretty much Japanese beer only, but I prefer Summit). Midori's was much more interesting because it seemed like the kind of place you might walk into off the street if you were in Japan, and if you felt like it, you could really watch the chef roll your sushi (one guy, there he was, rolling your plate of food). Was it good? Absolutely. But not good enough that I won't try someplace else (Kyle recommend Origami) next time.
We handled the lack of beer choices issue by going to Town Hall Brewery (check out Scott McGerik's blog for a pretty extensive list of articles about the restaurant - note that he talks about Hoban, the Korean restaurant, as well - which is by my house, close enough to bike there and which Pooteewheet and I discussed yesterday as some place we should go - weird) afterwards and watching Iron Chef while drinking a few of the house beers. At one point, a guy walked up and noted that we were watching Iron Chef and must be desparate for entertainment. He then tried to sell us a (presumably bootleg) copy of Star Wars III (honest) before being run out by the wait staff. When we left, we saw him trying to sneak into the next bar down the road.
Friday, May 20, 2005
Surprising Twist of Events
I went to Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith with Pooteewheet tonite and I have to tell you, when Padme said she was pregnant, and Anakin responded, "But I've been in the outer rim for 10 months", I just knew it was going to be more interesting than the previous two.
Personal opinion - I loved the pretty movie, but disliked the writing and the acting, except for Frank Oz, he was phenomenal. And I'm starting to believe George Lucas has some sort of weird hand fetish, or hand-losing, recurring nightmare - maybe his mother caught him masturbating when he was younger, or he's worried about doing it too much, it's hard to say.
By the way, if you're one of those idiots who believe Lucas' movie is some sort of liberal plot, go read Minnesota's very own Blog of the Moderate Left who sums it up nicely:
"Two hundred years from now, if humans are still watching movies, they will see the parallels to their own time--as we see parallels in the great literature of old. Star Wars isn't a liberal story; it's a human story. And only a fool would think otherwise."
Personal opinion - I loved the pretty movie, but disliked the writing and the acting, except for Frank Oz, he was phenomenal. And I'm starting to believe George Lucas has some sort of weird hand fetish, or hand-losing, recurring nightmare - maybe his mother caught him masturbating when he was younger, or he's worried about doing it too much, it's hard to say.
By the way, if you're one of those idiots who believe Lucas' movie is some sort of liberal plot, go read Minnesota's very own Blog of the Moderate Left who sums it up nicely:
"Two hundred years from now, if humans are still watching movies, they will see the parallels to their own time--as we see parallels in the great literature of old. Star Wars isn't a liberal story; it's a human story. And only a fool would think otherwise."
Someone
has discovered the whole reason I want to take him on the Summit brewery tour. I'd make some offhand comment like "I add Summit to my water", but that pretty much just makes me sound like an alcoholic. I hope for the sake of everyone involved, that Mean Mr. Mustard isn't a mean drunk, because if drinking makes him any snarkier, he's currently unbareable.
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Franken and the 8.8 Billion
I think this is my favorite post of the day so far, so I'm going to steal it from Eschaton wholesale, who in turn pilfered it from The Huffington Post. I encourage you to follow the Franken link below as there's some fun storytelling about our local Senator, Norm "I burn from the hot crumpet of shame after crossing paths with a Brit" Coleman.
Franken:
Meanwhile, the Coalition Provisional Authority, which we ran, has lost 8.8 billion dollars. By lost, I mean it’s totally unaccounted for. Not only has Congress not "looked into" this $8.8 billion and who might have it now, but it seems that some members are completely unaware that this staggering sum, which was supposed to go toward rebuilding Iraq, is missing. The Sunday morning after the White House Correspondents dinner, I ran into Senator George Allen at a brunch thrown by John McLaughlin and his wife. Allen had never heard of the missing $8.8 billion, or at least that's what he told me. And he's on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Stunned, I went up to Susan Page of USA Today and her husband Carl Lubsdorf of the Dallas Morning News, two veteran Washington political reporters, and told them about Allen’s ignorance of this huge scandal, which has no doubt contributed to hatred for America and the deaths of our troops. There’s less electricity in Iraq now than there was before we invaded Iraq.
Turns out that Page and Lubsdorf had also never heard of the unaccounted-for $8.8 billion. For a moment I thought that maybe I had been imagining things.
Then I spotted my friend Norm Ornstein, scholar from the American Enterprise Institute. "Would you believe it if Norm Ornstein told you about the $8.8 billion?" I asked Susan and Carl.
"Sure."
I brought Norm over, and indeed I had not been imagining things. "It was a huge story," Norm told them.
"Was it in the New York Times?" Carl asked Norm.
"Yes," Norm assured him.
What in God’s name is going on?
Franken:
Meanwhile, the Coalition Provisional Authority, which we ran, has lost 8.8 billion dollars. By lost, I mean it’s totally unaccounted for. Not only has Congress not "looked into" this $8.8 billion and who might have it now, but it seems that some members are completely unaware that this staggering sum, which was supposed to go toward rebuilding Iraq, is missing. The Sunday morning after the White House Correspondents dinner, I ran into Senator George Allen at a brunch thrown by John McLaughlin and his wife. Allen had never heard of the missing $8.8 billion, or at least that's what he told me. And he's on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Stunned, I went up to Susan Page of USA Today and her husband Carl Lubsdorf of the Dallas Morning News, two veteran Washington political reporters, and told them about Allen’s ignorance of this huge scandal, which has no doubt contributed to hatred for America and the deaths of our troops. There’s less electricity in Iraq now than there was before we invaded Iraq.
Turns out that Page and Lubsdorf had also never heard of the unaccounted-for $8.8 billion. For a moment I thought that maybe I had been imagining things.
Then I spotted my friend Norm Ornstein, scholar from the American Enterprise Institute. "Would you believe it if Norm Ornstein told you about the $8.8 billion?" I asked Susan and Carl.
"Sure."
I brought Norm over, and indeed I had not been imagining things. "It was a huge story," Norm told them.
"Was it in the New York Times?" Carl asked Norm.
"Yes," Norm assured him.
What in God’s name is going on?
Donut Blogging
So, rather than the usual bagels I bring for treat day, I decided to go unhealthy and try the Puffy Cream donut store in Eagan that sits between me and work when I take the Eagan backroads past Blue Cross/Blue Shield onto Yankee Doodle. I was pleasantly surprised at having a good variety available at 6:50 a.m. and not getting lectured about pre-ordering donuts (I once was chewed out by a donut lady in Richfield because I wanted two dozen donuts and hadn't placed an order the night before - she also told me I had to take x number of cake donuts for every x number of fancy donuts). However, one thing struck me as strange. If you want a dozen cake donuts at the donut shop, it costs $5.50. If you want a dozen non-cake donuts (those with custard/jelly in the center, cinnamon, etc), it costs $6.50 a dozen. If you get a mixture of cake and fancy donuts, it costs $6.75. Apparently there's a donut tax for making the donut lady try to fit your mixed-size donuts into a box. I'd be better off buying two boxes of a dozen instead of one with two-dozen, one box of cake donuts, and one of fancy donuts - it would cost me $12.00 instead of $13.50 and, actually, I'd be even better off focusing entirely on non-cake donuts for $13.00 and screwing over anyone at work who preferred cake donuts (although I myself ate a cake donut this morning - but I could have bought just one). Considering Mr. Mustard complained about me not bringing bagels immediately upon meeting him this morning, I think he really deserved a reduced selection of treats.
Exciting News for Klund!
I don't think he'll have to buy books anymore - The Darth Side: Memoirs of a Monster
Journal of Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith and Servant to His Supreme Excellency the Emperor Palpatine.
Journal of Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith and Servant to His Supreme Excellency the Emperor Palpatine.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)