Catching Up!

This photo of my Son and I and our Brides belongs with the August 8th post The Member-Guest Tourney. Dan sent me the photo from his camera.

This was at the end of our Friday night 9-Hole Scramble. We found out that there was a nice prize for being in last place. In the 'Having Fun Department'... we came in 1st. A Purple Ribbon.
************
AND THEN
************Last Thursday night Marilyn and I forgot to lock the door and who should pop in but the lovely Char and that guy she's been sleeping with.

They stopped again last night on their way back through. We got two too short visits from them but it's always fun if even for a short time. I'm pretty sure Ralph will fill you in about their great adventure. He has a month's worth of blogs in his head from this trip. I'm looking forward to it.
Ralph and I understand each other pretty well. I was up in the pre-dawn hours this morning, and I knew Ralph and Char wanted to leave early so when I heard Ralph coming downstairs I got up from my computer and met him in the darkened hallway. Without a smile from either one of us I said "Marilyn and I talked last night after you two went to bed and we think it's time for you two to leave." Also without a smile he replied, "We'll eat breakfast and leave, will that be soon enough?" I said "That will be just right." They did.
I hope they come back soon.

We're Back!

A vicious rumor circulated thru the crowd at the wedding. There reportedly wasn't going to be any cake at the reception.
It was the cause of much consternation.










Speculation was brought to an end when the rumor was found to be untrue. It caused one wedding patron to shout... "Hey guys, there's going to be two kinds of cake and one is going to be my favorite, CHOCOLATE!!"




Having been granted traveling mercies we have returned to the farm. We attended a family reunion in Albuquerque and the wedding of Ralph and Chars daughter in Denver.
The same phenomenon recurred at the reunion as last time. Everyone appears to have aged a bit since two years ago, except Marilyn and I. We played some golf courses that were clearly over my head, ate salsa at every meal and told and retold family stories. A delightful time and a good reason to get together.
The wedding was delightful. We got to repay the Campbells for some of the help they've been to us over the years. We did some cooking, entertaining, and generally had a great time. The wedding was a lovely garden affair and the reception was in a hall next to the garden. All was nicely done and nothing was overblown. I'll leave most of the wedding news to Ralph. If he's too stingy with the pics...I'll have to get involved.
I'm looking forward to the next time we can get together with the Campbells.
The promised date for Blogstock '08 will have to wait a bit. Ralph is thinking the 4Th of July and I'm not sure. We just didn't have time to visit about that.
We had 1.25" of rain the night after we left and another 1.30" of rain the night we got home. If this rain keeps up I'll never get done irrigating.
I have often warned my kids to be careful not to pay too much for gas when pulling off of the Interstate in a remote area. On the way home Thursday we got off of the interstate at Cozad, NE. The BP station had $3.02 on their sign for 10% ethanol. Thinking this to be in line with what I had seen in Denver, we pulled in. The cheapest grade at the pump was $3.59!! I was mad and cancelled the transaction. We went 2 blocks further to the only other station at that interchange and paid $3.08. I had often seen the 50 cent range between stations before, but running a deceptive sign was stooping to a new low.
The weeds have responded to the recent rains quite well. If anyone is looking for me I'll be running my 8 horse, two wheeled string trimmer. Probably out around the grain bins. I'll stop by your blog soon. Come visit, we'll bake a cake.

Visitors From The East

A few days back we had visitors. They are kids. You can tell that because they arrived at 3:00 in the morning. They are DOR and future SILOR. That's Daughter of Ralph and future Son In law of Ralph for those not paying attention. They were leaving their home town of Chicago and traveling to spend the rest of the summer coaching basketball and preparing for a wedding in Denver. They called me mid morning the day before this pic was taken. Tiffany said "Cliff, we're going to Denver and need a place to stay." I said "You know you're welcome, you don't have to ask, what time will you be here?" "Oh about eleven or midnight." I said "Great, we'll wait up for you." At midnight I called them to see where they were. They were half way across Iowa. "That's three hours away Tiffany, you know where our bedrooms are, see you in the morning, the door's open, shut out the lights before you go up stairs." Shutting the lights off was a deal I always made with the kids. I left lights on and they were to shut everything off when they came home and went upstairs to bed. That way I didn't have to wake in the middle of the night and wonder if they had made it home. They got here at 3:00 AM and when I got up the next morning at 7:00 (no I don't always sleep late but I'd had a late night) Tiff was already up and sitting in the living room visiting with Marilyn. It must be nice to be young. They left here after breakfast and a quick tour of Tekamah. I did have a chance to take Jason on a tour of the farm in one of my tractors. He is quick to pick up on farming techniques and was genuinely interested. Well at least he asked all the right questions.

Tiffany already has a teaching and coaching job for next fall in Chicago and Jason will finish college and teach Biology as well as coach, after graduation. This is the beginning of what looks like a well planned out pair of careers and marriage. It was nice to be remembered with a visit even if it was a brief one. Those two are always welcome.