Exactly what I needed...

Lately I've been feeling extremely frazzled. So much to do, so little time to do it in. Work has been beyond hectic and so has life.

Technology has taken over; the computers and printers, fax and copy machines...I can never seem to get away from them. And the worst, it seems, are the phones. We have 10 phone lines in our office and some days the ringing doesn't stop and people call my cell phone for work as well.

No matter where I go, it seems, they find me. I sometimes find myself thinking...if that d*mn phone rings one more time, I am going to toss it out the window!

Luckily, just as I was reaching the breaking point (OK, some might say I was already there), a friend asked me to ride to Denver with her.

Hurrah--road trip!

I packed lightly (for me), picked up my kid-cousin Sadie (age 9--almost ten) at our house in Billings, met my friend at the Holiday Inn and headed for the big city lights in her rental car.

We had a few misadventures along the way...can you say a four hour wait for Enterprise to decide to replace the two completely bald tires (one of which was completely flat on BOTH sides--heehee) on our rental vehicle in Sheridan, WY...and arrived in Denver around 9 pm. Off to a late dinner we went and then to bed to get ready for a fantastic weekend!

As always, Wolf had great adventures planned. The first stop on our whirlwind weekend tour was Central City, CO, well known for its gambling halls and fancy hotels and less well known for its incredible scenery and amazing cemeteries.

Yes, I said cemeteries.

My son has always, as my mom used to say, paddled his own canoe. His idea of an adventure is not to sit in a smoky casino, it is to explore the great outdoors.

In one of his many adventures he found these two very old, very rustic side-by-side cemeteries and thought we would enjoy seeing them as well.

He was right.

Here Sadie and Wolf head up the path to the cemetery. It was ungroomed and unkept, for the most part, and incredibly large. I am no judge of acreage, but I'd have to say it covered several square miles.

There was no way to take a photo that would truly represent how much area the two cemeteries covered.

I was surprised by how much enthusiasm Sadie showed during the trip, although she adores Wolf so much, she'd probably have had fun doing anything with him.

This is a very small part of the cemetery. It extends into the grove of Quaking Aspens to the right and to the left as well.

This is one of the many unusual headstones we saw.

The trail extended for what seemed like miles. We walked for nearly an hour and a half and didn't come to the end of the property.

This old mine building was roped off, but we thought it was quite interesting. Sadie wanted to go exploring, but Wolf told her it was dangerous so she stayed away.

This monument was to one of twelve miners who died in the Sleepy Hollow mine disaster in 1895.

This is a close-up of the bottom of the stone.

I thought this was interesting for some reason. Life coming out of death or something like that...

I loved the way the stone looked with the flowers around it.

The saying on the bottom of this stone really touched me...

How incredibly true, don't you think?

The graves of young children brought tears to our eyes, especially Sadie.

Nels found an unusual headstone. I thought it was a tree when I saw it from a distance.

When you think about the tools they had to work with back then, these stones are even more remarkable in my opinion.

I think this is beautiful.

My two wonderful traveling companions.

Sadie and I found an old building that had only one wall remaining. Wolf decided he needed to take a picture of us.

Wolf as we were getting ready to leave the cemetery. I told him when I died I wanted to be cremated and have some of my ashes spread here. I can't imagine anywhere more beautiful.

I really want to thank Wolf for this part of the adventure. All of it was amazing and wonderful and enjoyable, but getting me away from civilization and back to the past for a few hours was exactly what I needed.

Proud Momma...

My son is one of the most giving people I know. He works hard, volunteers for various causes and is always there to lend a hand to his friends and family. He is kind and sweet and generous to a fault and I feel truly lucky to be his mom.

What has he done now, you ask? For the third time in as many years, he has cut all his hair off and donated it to "Locks of Love".

This is the picture he took of himself as he was preparing to leave the hair salon.


I could not be more proud of him than I am right now.

Life's a blur right now...

Yes, I am alive and yes I am a blogger-slacker. I apologize.

Just a very short post to say I'm sorry about my lack of posts and more importantly, visits to your blogs lately. I've been working two jobs to help out the kidcousins in Billings and going back and forth to see my dad as often as possible.

I have some wonderful photos I'd love to post, some insights I'd love to share, but I just haven't had the time to write or even download the photos from my camera to my computer.

My hope is to take some time off over Father's Day. I want to spend time with daddy and my brother, of course, and see the kidcousins. I might even have a few hours to visit your wonderful blogs and write a post or two of my own.

'Til then, I just want you all to know I love you and miss you, more than I can say. Things are going well...just very busy. When I think of what was happening a year ago...I have to be very pleased with the way life is going. I hope you can all say the same.

**Photo by darin11111

To make a long story short even longer...

Those of you who read this blog (both of you--LOL) know that I adore my brother Mike. He is one of the kindest, most decent people I have ever had the pleasure to know. You might think that I'm prejudice, him being my brother and all, but anyone who knows him says the same thing.

For years he took care of my mom and dad, moving into their home to provide them with the support they needed. His doing so enabled them to stay in their home for a very long time. When mom passed away, he stayed with dad to ease his loneliness and give him financial support as well.

When dad started showing symptoms of Parkinson's Disease several years ago, Mike took over all of the duties necessary to keep him home. His life revolved around dad and their dog Shasta. He did this for many years until it became obvious that dad could not be left alone during the hours that Mike worked. Dad agreed and we began the paperwork to move him into a nursing home near my brother's work.

Once dad was settled in, did Mike relax and take some time for himself? No he did not. Not a day goes by that Mike doesn't visit dad, always bringing treats for dad and his roommate and often bringing goodies for the staff as well.

While he's on his daily visit, Mike dotes on the residents as well. He fetches them water, finds and returns their lost items, helps them eat, and consoles them when they are sad. He's so helpful, that many of them think he's on staff there.

The staff think the world of him, too. Every time I stop to visit someone tells me what a great guy he is and I've even had them try to set him up with their friends!

And what does Mike do when he's not at work or doting on the residents of the Beartooth Manor? He dotes on his dog Shasta and his two newly acquired cats, Floyd and Cuddles.

Floyd showed up on the doorstep one day and of course Mike let him in and fed him. He came and went as he pleased for several days until a lady showed up asking if he'd seen a yellow and white cat. Mike said that he had and in fact the cat was sleeping on the couch at the time. The woman was quite thrilled to have "Pretty Boy" back and took him home with her.

The next day, Pretty Boy was back. Mike petted him, but did not let him in the house because he didn't want to encourage him. He came back day after day and finally the woman asked if he would like to keep him, since he obviously preferred Mike to her. Mike, of course, said that he would and promptly renamed him "Floyd" saying no WONDER he ran away!!!

Since the first of the year, Mike had been taking care of his neighbor's two cats while she convalesced in a nursing home after an illness. A few months ago her daughters decided that she should move to an assisted living facility near them. It was a good plan, except she would only be able to take one of her dear kitties, so she asked Mike to take the other, which he did!

After Mike officially adopted Floyd, he tried to make him an indoor cat, but Floyd would have none of it. He was used to coming and going as he pleased and he made the most pathetic noises at the door and finally Mike gave in and let him out. Cuddles, on the other hand, was perfectly content to stay in.

Mike works 12 hour shifts, going back and forth between days and nights. He hired a young man to come in and walk Shasta for him, but the schedule didn't work well for Floyd, who had his own timetable and didn't seem keen on adjusting it to anyone else's. Finally Mike came up with a plan.

He put a cat door in between the basement and the attached greenhouse and one from the greenhouse to the backyard. He placed a table leaf (oak no less) between the pool table and the shelf under the window so that Floyd (and Cuddles should he ever desire to leave the house) didn't have to (God Forbid!!) jump all the way up to the shelf to exit the premises.

Floyd was free to come and go as he pleased, but as you can see from the photo, Mike can close the basement window when he doesn't want Floyd to go out.

Problem solved.

Mike calls it....

Are you ready for this?

The Catobahn.

And the answer is....

Since none of you correctly guessed what the photo was on my last (slacker) post, I will save the all-expense paid trip for the next guess-athon and drink the half bottle of Strawberry Hill (hee hee, hiccup--oops, I already did).

So now let me set the scene for the photo...

For decades the basement in the Absarokee house remained dry, only flooding during storms of biblical proportions. For the past several years, for one reason or another (and believe me I do have my theories), the basement has flooded despite our having put pumps down there.

This year my brother decided to be ready.

He spent many a weekend chipping the concrete from around the French drain in the basement. He worked his tail off to create a sump so that he could put a float-controlled pump in it.


Those are 5 gallon buckets...so you can see how large the rock is.


I showed up just in time to help him plumb it in and take a few photos, of course.

Including this lovely one of a long-deceased arachnid of some type.


You have probably guessed by now that the photo in the last post was a close up of the sump he built.


Let the rains come!

What on earth is it?

This is my yearly semi-yearly whenever the hell I want to do it, "What on earth is it?" contest.

As always, the first person to correctly guess, will win either an all expense paid trip to beautiful eastern Montana or a half full bottle of Strawberry Hill wine.

Good luck!

Laughter, the best medicine!

This is not my cat, my bathtub or even my bathroom. I used this picture to illustrate what my cat did last night as I lay in a steaming tub of water hoping to unblock my sinuses which had been cemented shut for the past several days.

After moping about all day, feeling sorry for myself, working when I had the energy and generally feeling like the world was abusing me in every way possible, I decided enough was enough and ran myself a hot bubble bath.

I love my apartment. Even though when the neighbor children come and go it sounds like a herd of wildabeasts have invaded the building, even though you can't run the microwave and the toaster at the same time without throwing at least one breaker, even though the washing machine spins so out of control that it knocks my pictures off the wall...I love my apartment.

Not only does it have ginormous windows, central heat and air and the quaintest kitchen in the free world (yes, yes, I'll post some pictures eventually...don't nag me!!), it has a REAL BATHTUB. You know the kind...real ceramic. Not the plastic crap they use now-adays, but real old fashioned ceramic. It has molded edges and feels nice to the touch. The water stays warm in it FOREVER and it is long and deep.

That's what I'm talking about...a soaking tub.

I placed my special bath salts (lovingly bought by none other than Wolf, the best son in the universe) in the steeping hot water and watched as the aromatic bath tonic melted in. I inched my sore, tired, achy, strep infected body into the almost too hot to stand water and lay there listening to jazz on xm radio.

I'm not sure how much time passed, but it was awhile. I dozed off and was awaked by the touch of my sweet Emmy cat's soft paw on my arm. Obviously concerned about me, she was sitting on the edge of the bathtub watching me...with her tail in the water. I thought she must not know it's in the water, so I gently removed it and placed it back on the tub edge. Back in the water it went...moving as though it was paddling. I removed it several more times, telling her "cats don't like water, Em"...but she didn't listen and back in the water it went over and over again.

I'd have given my left kidney for an actual photo of Emmy's tail in the water, but alas I was unable to get up to get the camera without disturbing her, so I just sat in the tub and watched her tail swimming in the warm water.

And laugh, oh mercy, did I laugh. I laughed so hard I cried.

It had been awhile since I laughed that way...the last time was in Denver with Wolf. It felt so so good! I could feel myself starting to heal right then and there and sure enough...today I am feeling nearly normal, whatever that is for me...lol!

So thanks to my favorite kitty in the universe, for reminding me to laugh.

Oh the joys...

...of working from home.

My tidy little work space.



OK, so there were a few kitty toys on the floor. What self respecting cat lover doesn't have cat toys worth more than their annual salary around the house? But look how neat and tidy the workspace was.

Emphasis on WAS.


Hi mom, whatcha doing? Can I help in any way?


Yes, those are my important papers and paperclips that spilled out of the holder when she threw it on the floor.

Yes, folks, it wasn't enough that she batted the papers to the floor, she then looked me in the eye and knocked the paperclips off too.

She was going for the hole punch (and wouldn't that have made a lovely mess) when I picked her up off of the table and put her on the floor. As you can imagine that didn't go over very well, so being the strict disciplinarian and incredible cat whisperer that I am, I went and opened up a can of albacore tuna and put it into her dish. That held her attention for nanoseconds and then she was back to cause more trouble.


She looks like a vulture, doesn't she?

Finally everything settled down and she fell to sleep in the middle of my bed. I tippy-toed back to my work space and struggled to meet my (personal) deadline.

Typing oh, so, very, quietly so as not to awaken the little darling. Please, dear god, don't let the keys make so much noise! I have a deadline!!

Well darn, that didn't work out very well for me did it?

My trip to Denver, the turbo edition

I know I promised photos of my trip to Denver and I really did intend to provide you with them, but once again I was too busy living in the moment to take photos...

But I do so want to let you know that I had a splendid time in Denver and things could not have been better, so here's the Cliff's Notes version of day one my trip:

Friday morning at 5 am I got up, threw a few things (OK maybe more than a few) into my bag and met my buddy downstairs. We managed to stuff my few things (ha) into the trunk of his brand new California Edition Mustang (bright red, it's a beauty I tell ya) and we were off.

About midway to Denver, my friend offered me a chance to drive the 'Stang and of course, me being me and all, I jumped at the chance. It was obvious that my driving scared him badly...
Once we got to Denver, I dropped myself off at my son's and Wolf and I headed for the mall. We did some shopping; Hot Topic, Bath and Bodyworks, the Piercing Pagoda and a few other places and then took a bit of a break. I hadn't eaten much and was a bit woozy so we stopped at the food court where I picked up a raspberry parfait to munch on.

While eating I decided to put in the earrings I had purchased. I had a difficult time getting them in my ear but finally persevered (remember this because it will become important in a later blog post...)!

After my snack I was full of energy again and we continued our shopping extravaganza. I noticed a nail salon and Wolf offered to pay for a manicure and pedicure for me. I am all woman, so of course I said YES!

There was a short wait so we walked off to do a bit more shopping. As we passed by one of those fun-photo booths, Wolf and I both (at the same time, if you can imagine) said "let's take our picture!"

My son is a very tall, very broad shouldered guy. He stands 6'4 1/2 in his stocking feet and I can't help but think he has about the broadest shoulders of any man I've ever met.

At first I sat on the bench and he tried to slide in beside me. If you've ever been in one of those booths, you'll know what I'm talking about...there was not much room to navigate in there!

We finally got settled and inserted the credit card. You are supposed to be able to adjust the angle of the camera up and down, but our adjuster doohickey thingamabob (that's the technical term for it) was broken.

We burst out laughing and the series of photos that follows is the result. In the last photo Wolf told me to "look pensive". How I love that kid.

One more thing...can someone please tell me how many gazillion pounds I have to lose before I lose the second (and third) chin? Sheeeeeesh!!!!

And with that whiny comment, I bid you adieu...I'll fill you in on more of our fun adventures in a day or so.

Hugs to all... Laurie

KITTY, WAKE UP!

This isn't my kitty, but it could be. Emily is SO NOT a morning girl.

A whole lotta nothing going on...

I have absolutely nothing witty or funny or even mildly interesting to say lately, so I've not posted a thing in awhile.

I've been busier than usual at work and have not even had time to visit your blogs and for that I apologize. Things are vewwy vewwy good, but I've been vewwy vewwy busy! I have taken on, once again, more work than I should, and since I am me and all, i feel I must have it all done before I allow myself to go to Denver to visit my son.

Yes, you heard it here...I'm going to Denver to see Wolf for Easter! It will be a quick trip, but well worth it.

I will try to take lots of pictures and maybe even post one or two from there...I know, I know...famous last words.

None-the-less, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

Oh, I do have one semi-funny thing to report. At a meeting yesterday I saw a woman I hadn't seen in nearly a year. She took one look at me and said, "you look gaunt, have you been sick?" I laughed and said that I had not been sick, in fact I felt better than I had in years.

When I got home I looked up the word gaunt. According to Dictionary.com it means:

gaunt–adjective, -er, -est.

1.	extremely thin and bony; haggard and drawn, as from great hunger, weariness, or torture; emaciated.

2.	bleak, desolate, or grim, as places or things: a gaunt, windswept landscape.

My hope is that she meant 1. extremely thin and bony rather than haggard and drawn or worse yet bleak, desolate or grim...

And FYI, I am far from thin and bony (although looking at my most recent picture, some might say I am a bit haggard--haha!!).


Hugs and much love to you all, some even more than others (you know who you are).

The one where Laurie shows you her apartment mops the universe.

Today was going to be the day. It really was. All day yesterday I worked spuriously (a combination of speedily and furiously--trust me, if you knew me in person you would give me this word, even in Scrabble--it's so me) to finish my work projects for the week. Due to a hard drive failure on my work computer, I had lost most of the data I need to complete what I had deemed my "to do" list for the weekend, so I spent countless hours reinventing the wheel.

I compiled the data I needed for a presentation I'll be doing later in the month and put together graphs and charts. I sorted through hundreds and hundreds of work photos and organized them into files. I also did a major update to the work website. All this in order to be able to spend today taking photos of my apartment to blog for you.

The day dawned bright and beautiful. It was cold, mind you, at least it felt cold to me on my morning walk. When I passed by the bank thermometer/clock thingy (that's the technical term for it--trust me) it said it was 28 degrees F, but it felt colder because there was a bit of a breeze.

After my walk, I made a crockpot of my soon-to-be famous spaghetti sauce and set about straightening up the apartment. I swept and mopped, I cleaned and organized. I put away the last couple of boxes from my move all the while jammin' to the tunes on XM Radio.

I also washed several loads of laundry. This is my cat Emily's favorite part of cleaning day because the washer and dryer are located right outside one of the doors to the apartment and she gets to run up and down the stairs and explore the hall to her hearts content while the clothes wash.

I was just finishing the vacuuming when I saw Emmy coming toward me. She was acting very strangely...shaking her feet as she walked. She had a peevish expression on her face and she was squeaking. Emmy doesn't meow, she squeaks...I'm pretty sure it's because she thinks she's a dog. She was raised by a border collie and a Welsh corgi and she hates cats. When she sees her own reflection in the full-length mirror, she puffs up and starts to hiss...I think she's a cog or maybe even a dat, but I digress...

I picked her up and to my shock, she was wet! Her pretty little white feet were filthy dirty and sopping wet. I put her down and followed her out into the hall where I saw a steady stream of water pouring out from under the door that connects my hallway to that of the hallway of the other apartment in the building. This hallway also houses the hot water heater and the **gasp** drain to my washing machine, which apparently was and had been for awhile, plugged! A tsunami of water came rushing down the hallway when I opened the door and water poured down the stairs of the building.

Crap! So much for my plans to take photos of my apartment today.

I turned off the washer, rolled up my sweatpants, gathered up a bucket (actually an aluminum turkey roasting pan I use for Chex Mix when my son is here--I promise I'll buy a new one Wolf) and my mop and set to work.

The apartment building is still a work in progress. Eventually there will be another tenant, but for now it's just me and Emmy. The contractor is in the process of remodeling and a lot of his things were in the room where the flood originated. I moved everything out so that I could begin to clean up the mess. Emmy, as you can see from the photo below, didn't really mind wandering the soggy halls. Doesn't she know that cats hate water?


Numerous hours and too many gallons of water to count later, my job was finished. Me, being me and all, decided that just mopping up the flood wasn't enough, I had to go back through and mop it all with lysol so it wouldn't smell "funky" after it dried.

While the hallway may not have smelled funky, I can't say the same for my feet. Can you see how dirty they are? (Nice red toenails though, don't you think?)

Not to worry, I just dipped them in the bathroom sink and washed them off. I was quite surprised to see how easily I was able to put my foot up there. Losing weight has really paid off for me, don't you think? ha!!! (By the way, for those of you totally disgusted with me for using the sink this way, please know that I cleaned and disinfected it thoroughly after taking this picture)

So anyway, my motives were pure and I really meant to post "the one where Laurie shows you her apartment", but the floodwaters prevented me from doing so. I will leave you with a photo of my beautiful (at least I think it's beautiful) bedroom. It's so warm and cozy and comfy I look forward to going to bed at night for the first time in a very long time.

I really will post pictures of the rest of the place next weekend. I promise. Unless, of course, I'm visited by a plague of locusts.

The River

A couple of weeks ago I decided that kid-cousin Sadie and I needed some time together. I'd been working a lot of extra hours and had not had the opportunity to spend weekends in Billings as I had been. Sadie was missing me and even more I think, missing our visits to Grampa at the nursing home.

I picked Sadie up Friday after school and after a long visit at the nursing home, we drove to Absarokee to spend the weekend with Uncle Mike. We were greeted at the door by Shasta and a little while later Mike's cat Floyd (originally named Pretty Boy by his original owner) and the newest member of the household, former neighbor Lois's cat, Cuddles, came out to visit.

We spent the evening relaxing, watching TV and visiting. Mike was happy to have us over and Sadie doted on all of the critters. I, for once, didn't even open my laptop to work!

Saturday, in addition to visiting Grampa at the nursing home, we went on a couple of very fun adventures.

Our first stop was Hawkin's Park. The park is one of Mike and Shasta's favorite places to romp and Sadie, as you can see from the pictures, really enjoyed it as well.



Soon after we arrived at the park, Sadie told Mike and I that she had never walked beside a frozen river before. My heart broke a bit thinking of all the opportunities she had missed in her life and I vowed then to make sure she and her siblings had more outdoor adventures in the future.


Shasta explored every inch of the park as usual.


Sadie got a huge kick out of walking on the thick ice at the edge of the river.

I think she really enjoyed being around "Uncle" Mike and I know he really loved showing her the river.


Sadie reminds me so much of Wolf when he was young. He never walked by a log in his life that he didn't want to stand on.

Mike has a great sense of humor. Sadie laughed so hard that later she told me her face hurt.

Sadie was amazed at how bright the ice was in the sunlight

and how bright blue the mountains appeared.

Uncle Mike spotted the giant hunk of ice in the free flowing part of the river, so of course I had to take a photo of it!


I love the way the old power plant looks surrounded by ice.

The second stop of the adventure was at "the secret place". The ice out there is especially thick.


In the setting sun, it had a kind of blue hue to it.

Shasta, of course, had a great time. She always does!

I call this one Sadie the irrigator. She found this headgate valve and had a blast trying to turn it. Uncle Mike kept teasing her that come the spring thaw the town of Absarokee would be under four feet of water from her efforts. She thought he was really funny!

And so it ended. The moon was beautiful and bright and so was the day.

Life is really beautiful, isn't it?

You've been mooned, again!

This week my work took me to Fairmont Hot Springs Resort for a "No Adverse Impacts" conference. The subject refers to mitigating impacts involved with land use and land use planning. It has been a very interesting workshop so far and the setting couldn't be more beautiful. I wish there was time to get out and take some photos, but the conference runs from very early morning to evening, so I've not had time.

I did manage to sneak in a soak in the hot tubs, which really weren't hot enough for me, and to take some photos of the eclipse of the moon.

Obviously, I need to work on my technique here, or else lay off the hard liquor.

Not a whole lot better, but it's an interesting shot anyway, don't you think?

I have no clue why the moon appears to have a tail here, but I imagine it was camera operator error.

Not quite there, but I'm getting better at it in this shot.

By George (or Canon) I think I've got it...at least as much as I ever will.

Now it's back to work for me! I have notes to finish transcribing and then I'm going to get some rest (if my co-worker, the beautiful and talented Bobbi, doesn't snore all night again). Our conference ends at 3:30 and then we have to drive the 4oo and some miles back to Forsyth.


Our annual conservation achievement banquet is Sunday and after that I have a plethora of meetings to plan and attend. I'm not sure when I'll get it done, but I plan to have a nervous breakdown sometime soon.

Ha! I'm so not...I am loving this and you all know it.

So hugs, be safe and I'll stop over and see you all soon. I promise!